{"id": 1293103, "name": "People granted permanent residency in the United States, by region of origin", "unit": "people", "createdAt": "2026-07-22T10:24:21.000Z", "updatedAt": "2026-07-23T09:02:45.000Z", "coverage": "", "timespan": "1820-2019", "datasetId": 8074, "shortUnit": "", "columnOrder": 0, "shortName": "immigrants", "catalogPath": "grapher/migration/2026-07-22/us_lawful_permanent_residents/by_region_of_origin#immigrants", "descriptionProcessing": "We calculated these regional totals from the source's country-level data, grouping countries into regions as defined by Our World in Data. They can differ from the source's own regional totals: for example, we count Caribbean and Central American countries as part of North America.", "type": "int", "grapherConfigIdETL": "019f899d-74be-744c-97f6-ce02aeabf220", "dataChecksum": "6372096185444439262", "metadataChecksum": "-5026415923469753856", "datasetName": "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics", "updatePeriodDays": 365, "datasetVersion": "2026-07-22", "nonRedistributable": false, "display": {"unit": "people", "timeInterval": "decade"}, "schemaVersion": 2, "processingLevel": "major", "presentation": {"topicTagsLinks": ["Migration"]}, "descriptionKey": "The way immigrants were counted by the US government has changed over time.\n- **1820\u20131867:** the figures count every foreign national who arrived by ship at a US seaport, including temporary visitors and people passing through, because no distinction was yet made between immigrants and other travelers.\n- **1868\u20131891:** the figures count only foreign nationals who arrived intending to settle, because the government now separated genuine immigrants from temporary visitors and stopped counting the visitors.\n- **1892 onward:** the figures count only foreign nationals formally inspected and admitted for permanent residence, so people who arrived but were turned away at inspection are no longer included, and the count reflects a legal admission rather than a simple arrival.\n- Immigrants entering overland from Canada and Mexico were not fully counted **until 1908**.\n\n\"Not specified\" covers people whose origin was not recorded, and a small number of people from the Americas whom the source does not assign to a specific country.", "dimensions": {"years": {"values": [{"id": 1820}, {"id": 1830}, {"id": 1840}, {"id": 1850}, {"id": 1860}, {"id": 1870}, {"id": 1880}, {"id": 1890}, {"id": 1900}, {"id": 1910}, {"id": 1920}, {"id": 1930}, {"id": 1940}, {"id": 1950}, {"id": 1960}, {"id": 1970}, {"id": 1980}, {"id": 1990}, {"id": 2000}, {"id": 2010}]}, "entities": {"values": [{"id": 273, "name": "Africa", "code": "OWID_AFR"}, {"id": 275, "name": "Asia", "code": "OWID_ASI"}, {"id": 276, "name": "Europe", "code": "OWID_EUR"}, {"id": 294, "name": "North America", "code": "OWID_NAM"}, {"id": 368114, "name": "Not specified", "code": null}, {"id": 277, "name": "Oceania", "code": "OWID_OCE"}, {"id": 295, "name": "South America", "code": "OWID_SAM"}]}}, "origins": [{"id": 18853, "titleSnapshot": "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2020 - Lawful Permanent Residents", "title": "Yearbook of Immigration Statistics", "descriptionSnapshot": "This archive contains the Lawful Permanent Residents tables of the 2020 Yearbook (Tables 1-12). We use this older edition of the yearbook because its Table 2 shows the number of people who obtained lawful permanent resident status by region and country of last residence for each decade, from the 1820s to the 2010s. Later editions of the yearbook only show the last ten fiscal years.\n\nDHS notes on the historical data: official recording of immigration to the United States began in 1820. From 1820 to 1867, the figures count passengers arriving at seaports; from 1868 to 1891 and 1895 to 1897, arriving immigrants; and from 1892 onward, immigrants admitted for permanent residence. People arriving by land were not fully counted until 1908. Before 1906, the figures refer to a person's country of origin; from 1906 onward, to their country of last residence. A few early fiscal years were shorter or longer than 12 months (1832, 1843, 1850, 1868, and 1976).", "description": "The 2020 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics is a collection of tables about immigration for the fiscal year.", "producer": "US Department of Homeland Security", "citationFull": "United States. Department of Homeland Security. 2020 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, 2022.", "attributionShort": "DHS", "urlMain": "https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/yearbook/2020/table2", "urlDownload": "https://ohss.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/21_0920_plcy_2020_yrbk_lpr_excel_final.zip", "dateAccessed": "2026-07-22", "datePublished": "2022-01-06", "license": {"name": "Public domain"}}]}