Utah Economy impacted by Immigrants...really!

Immigrants and their children are growing shares of Utah’s population and electorate.

• The foreign-born share of Utah’s population rose from 3.4% in 1990, to 7.1% in 2000, to 8.0% in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Utah was home to 222,638 immigrants in 2010, which nearly the total population of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
• 33.6% of immigrants (or 74,756 people) in Utah were naturalized U.S. citizens in 20106—meaning that they are eligible to vote.
• 5.4% (or 57,018) of registered voters in Utah were “New Americans”—naturalized citizens or the U.S.-born children of immigrants who were raised during the current era of immigration from Latin America and Asia which began in 1965—according to an analysis of 2008 Census Bureau data by Rob Paral & Associates.

Roughly 1 in 7 Utahns are Latino or Asian—and they vote.

•  The Latino share of Utah’s population grew from 4.9% in 1990, to 9.0% in 2000, to 13.0% (or 360,941 people) in 2010. The Asian share of the population grew from 1.5% in 1990, to 1.7% in 2000, to 1.9% (or 52,753 people) in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Latinos accounted for 2.2% (or 21,000) of Utah voters in the 2008 elections, and Asians 1.2% (11,000) according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• In Utah, 87.1% of children with immigrant parents were U.S. citizens in 2009, according to data from the Urban Institute

•  In 2009, 94% of children in Asian families in Utah were U.S. citizens, as were 90% of children in Latino families.
• Latino and Asian entrepreneurs and consumers add billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to Utah’s economy.
• The 2010 purchasing power of Latinos in Utah totaled $6.4 billion—an increase of 765.5% since 1990. Asian buying power totaled $1.9 billion—an increase of 459.8% since 1990, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.
• Asian-owned Utah’s 4,646 businesses had sales and receipts of $1.3 billion and employed 12,561 people in 2007, the last year for which data is available. The state’s 9,238 Latino-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $1.3 billion and employed 7,850 people in 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners.

Mexican immigrants are integral to Utah’s economy as taxpayers.

• Mexican immigrants in Utah “own property valued at $984 million,” have more than $1.0 billion in purchasing power, and paid more than $67 million in state and local taxes in 2000, according to a report by the Institute of Public and International Affairs at the University of Utah, including:

• $7.5 million in income tax;
• $52.2 million in sales tax; and
• $7.6 million in property tax.


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