This chart displays the origins of New Englanders born in foreign countries in each census year since 1910. It complements the data displayed in another chart—Birthplace of New Englanders—that specifies the shares of the region’s population born in New England, born in other regions of the United States, and born in foreign countries.

A striking pattern is the decline in the European share of New England’s foreign-born population. In 1910, nearly one in five New Englanders had been born in Europe. By 2010, fewer than one in twenty were. Immigrants from Canada also represented a progressively smaller share over the century, accounting for over 8 percent of the foreign-born population in 1910, but dwindling to less than 1 percent by 2010.

The steep drop in the European-born population share starting around 1910 reflects the end of the massive waves of immigration that characterized American demographic change in the early part of the twentieth century. Driven largely by this trend, New England’s foreign-born population declined as a share of the region’s total population throughout the century until the 1980s, when immigration from Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean caused this share to rise again. In 2010, persons born in Latin America or the Caribbean accounted for about 4.5 percent of New England population, immigrants from Asia or the Middle East represented about 3.3 percent of the New England population, while immigrants born elsewhere accounted for 2.5 percent of the New England population.

The category, "Born elsewhere outside of U.S." includes people born in Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, and other American possessions.

Detailed information about the economic and social characteristics of New England's immigrants is available in NEPPC Research Report 08-2: A Portrait of New England's Immigrants.