This page is intended to familiarize data users with CPS ASEC data tables on foreign-born populations in the United States. These tables are available for data years 1995 to the present. Tables based on the general CPS date back as far as 1947. Additional guidance about the CPS and related data products can be found here. General CPS data tables and many CPS ASEC tables are prepared by the Census Bureau in collaboration with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The CPS ASEC tables on the foreign born are organized into the following subject areas, or “iterations”:

1. Nativity and citizenship

2. Year of entry

3. World region of birth

4. Immigrant generation

In a given data year, each table is repeated four times, once for each iteration. The tables, by subject area and number, are classified as follows:

Table 1. Sex and age

Table 2. Marital status

Table 3. Household type

Table 4. Household type and size

Table 5. Educational attainment

Table 6. Employment status

Table 7.  Occupation

Table 8. Industry

Table 9. Total money income

Table 10. Total money income by household type

Table 11. Total earnings

Table 12. Total earnings by educational attainment

Table 13. Individual poverty status

Table 14. Family poverty by family status

Table 15. Housing tenure by household type

Table 16. Metropolitan status

Most, but not all, of these tables are presented with separate sections for males and females. The table number is comprised of the iteration number, followed by a decimal point and the subject number. As an example, the four iterations of Table 2 (Marital status) based on 2016 data are shown below. Foreign born tables based on 2016 CPS data can be accessed here. Table 1.2 is the first iteration of Table 2, so it reports marital status by nativity and citizenship status. Table 4.2 is the fourth iteration of marital status, so it reports marital status by immigrant generation.

• Table 1.2. Marital Status of the Population 15 Years and Over by Sex, Nativity, and U.S. Citizenship Status: 2016 

• Table 2.2. Marital Status of the Foreign-Born Population 15 Years and Over by Sex and Year of Entry: 2016 

• Table 3.2. Marital Status of the Foreign-Born Population 15 Years and Over by Sex and World Region of Birth: 2016   

• Table 4.2. Marital Status of the Population 15 Years and Over by Sex and Generation: 2016

Only tables on immigrant generation (Iteration 4) contain information on both foreign-born and native-born residents of the United States. First generation individuals are foreign-born, whereas those of the second generation are native-born with at least one foreign-born parent. Third-and-higher generation individuals are U.S.-born with two native-born parents.

Iterations 2, 3, and 4 include a seventeenth table that displays data subdivided by one or more of the other iteration topics. For example, Table 2.17 presents data by year of entry, world region of birth, and citizenship status. These three “hybrid” tables are:

• Table 2.17. Foreign-Born Population by World Region of Birth, Citizenship Status, and Year of Entry

• Table 3.17. Year of Entry of the Foreign-Born Population by Sex and World Region of Birth

• Table 4.17. Year of Entry of the Population by Sex and Generation