Immigrants play a significant role in the U.S. housing market, and their importance is expected to grow in the future. To better track this growth, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau started collecting data on citizenship, nativity (country of birth), and years of residency in the United States for the first time in the 2001 American Housing Survey (AHS).¹

Citizenship information allows researchers to determine whether a respondent is a native-born citizen, a naturalized citizen, or a noncitizen. This article provides preliminary information on the values and distributions of these three variables and compares the housing situations of native-born citizens, naturalized citizens, and noncitizens.

Overall, just over 10 percent of U.S. households are headed by foreign-born householders, most of whom were born in the Western Hemisphere. These immigrants are more likely to settle in the Northeast and West and to locate in central cities rather than outside metropolitan areas. Foreign-born householders are less likely to be homeowners and more likely to live in slightly older multifamily buildings, have more individuals in the housing unit, and be more crowded than native-born householders, although their housing cost burdens and housing problems are comparable. Naturalized citizens have been in the United States approximately 12 years longer than noncitizens, and noncitizen households are generally worse off than naturalized citizens with regard to most housing characteristics.

Citizenship, Country of Origin, and Year Arrived in United States

The citizenship question allows for the following responses:

• Native, born in the United States.

• Native, born in Puerto Rico or U.S. outlying areas.²

• Native, born abroad of American parents.

• Foreign born, U.S. citizen by naturalization.

• Foreign born, not a U.S. citizen.

According to preliminary estimates from the 2001 AHS, a native-born U.S. citizen heads approximately 9 out of every 10 households. Table 1³ shows that most U.S. households (92.9 million, or 87.3 percent) have householders⁴ who were born in the United States. Adding in native-born citizens from Puerto Rico and U.S. outlying areas and those born abroad of U.S. parents raises the proportion to 89.4 percent (95.2 million households). Naturalized citizens are householders of 5.6 million housing units, or approximately 5.3 percent of all households. Noncitizens head approximately the same number (5.6 million) and proportion (5.3 percent) of households.

Table 2 shows the distribution of occupied housing units by country of birth for householders who are foreign born. A respondent’s country of birth could be one of more than 100 countries, although data confidentiality rules require grouping of some countries to protect the identities of AHS respondents. Table 2 lists only those countries that accounted for at least 2 percent of all foreign-born householders. Mexico, at 2.9 million (24.6 percent), leads all other countries as the country of birth for such householders, and Canada is the country of birth for 381,000 foreign-born householders (3.2 percent). In total, Western Hemisphere countries contribute nearly half of all foreign-born householders (5.8 million householders, or 49 percent). Asian countries account for 3.1 million foreign-born householders (26.5 percent), with the Philippines accounting for 470,594 (4.0 percent); India, 428,670 (3.6 percent); China, 409,726 (3.5 percent); North and South Korea, 318,479 (2.7 percent); and Vietnam, 314,940 (2.7 percent). European countries together account for 2.3 million foreign-born householders (19.7 percent), with Germany contributing 474,554 (4.0 percent); Great Britain, 336,803 (2.8 percent); and Italy, 274,433 (2.3 percent).

Of foreign-born householders, those who are naturalized citizens have been in the United States approximately 12 years longer than noncitizens. Table 3 presents the distribution of householders by the year they came to the United States. The median year of arrival for naturalized citizens is approximately 1978, whereas the median for noncitizens is 1990. This difference is also demonstrated by looking at the proportion of persons who arrived before 1970. More than 34 percent of naturalized citizens arrived before 1970 compared with approximately 8 percent of noncitizens. Conversely, only approximately 4 percent of naturalized citizens arrived after 1994 versus 34 percent of noncitizens. Some of this difference is attributable to the waiting periods and processes required for naturalization rather than individual preferences or choice.

The distribution of native-born citizen householders across racial and Hispanic origin categories is quite different from that of foreign-born householders—both naturalized citizens and noncitizens. Foreign-born householders were much more likely to select the categories of Asian or Pacific Islander and Other Race, and they were much more likely to select the Hispanic category when asked about origin. As shown in table 4, 83.4 percent of native-born householders reported their race as white, whereas only 56.5 percent of naturalized citizens and 50.7 percent of noncitizens selected that racial category. Foreign-born householders were considerably less likely to report being black—7.1 percent of naturalized citizens and 8.6 percent of noncitizens—compared with 13.1 percent of native-born citizens. The differences were even greater for the Asian or Pacific Islander category: Only 1 percent of native-born householders chose Asian or Pacific Islander compared with 24.5 percent and 18.3 percent for naturalized citizens and noncitizens, respectively. The proportion of foreign-born householders selecting the Other Race category may result from confusion surrounding the use of separate questions for race and Hispanic origin. This confusion might also explain the major differences between native-born and foreign-born householders on the Hispanic origin question. Only 5.5 percent of native-born householders said they were of Hispanic origin compared with 32 percent and 49.8 percent for naturalized citizen and noncitizen householders.

Table 5 shows that the citizenship of those living in the household is often the same as that of the householder, although households with foreign-born householders contain significant numbers of nativeborn citizens. For example, 50.7 percent of those in households with a foreign-born, naturalized householder are also naturalized citizens, but 37.9 percent are native-born citizens, many of whom would be the children of the householder and the householder’s spouse. This finding is true to a lesser degree for those in households with foreign-born, noncitizen householders; 30.8 percent of them are native-born citizens, and 65.7 percent are noncitizens. By contrast, 98.8 percent of those in households headed by a native-born citizen are themselves native citizens, whereas 1.2 percent are foreign born.

Foreign-born householders are more likely to live in the Northeast and West and less likely to live in the South and Midwest. Of naturalized householders, 25.7 percent live in the Northeast, and of noncitizens, 23 percent live in the Northeast compared with 18.6 percent for native-born householders (see table 6). Approximately 39 percent of both naturalized citizen and noncitizen householders live in the West compared with 19.7 percent of native-born households. Approximately 1 in 4 native-born householders live in the Midwest compared with 1 in 10 naturalized citizen or noncitizen householders. The data also show that 36.9 percent of nativeborn householders live in the South compared with 24.9 of naturalized citizen householders and 28.2 percent of noncitizen householders.

Foreign-born householders are much more likely to live in metropolitan areas, specifically in central cities. Table 7 shows that whereas 27.8 percent of native-born householders live in central cities of metropolitan areas, 42.7 percent and 50.0 percent of naturalized citizens and noncitizen householders, respectively, lived in central cities. Living outside of metropolitan areas is a choice made by very few foreign-born householders—approximately 1 in 20 foreign-born householders lives in a nonmetropolitan area compared with approximately 1 in 4 native-born householders.

Housing of Native- and Foreign-Born Householders

Native-born householders are more likely to be homeowners than foreign-born householders, particularly noncitizen householders. Table 8 shows that 66.2 percent of naturalized citizen householders are homeowners, very near the 70-percent homeownership rate for native-born householders and almost twice the 35.8 percent rate for noncitizens. Because naturalized citizens have been in the United States longer, on average, than noncitizen householders, the data suggest that one might expect this gap in homeownership to decrease as noncitizen families stay in America longer and become naturalized citizens. The passage of time also allows for the accumulation of the resources needed to purchase a home.

Foreign-born householders are more likely than native-born householders to live in multifamily housing and less likely to reside in single-family housing. Table 9 indicates that more than half of noncitizen householders and nearly a third of naturalized citizen householders occupy multifamily units compared with 21 percent of the native-born householders. Furthermore, foreign-born householders tend to live in large multifamily structures—more than 7 percent of noncitizen and naturalized citizen householders live in structures with 50 or more units. This tendency can also be seen in the nearly 72 percent of native-born householders who occupy single-family units, compared with 65.5 percent of naturalized citizens and 44.9 percent of noncitizen householders. Finally, foreign-born householders are less than half as likely to live in manufactured housing, which may be largely due to their settling away from the South.

Foreign-born householders live in slightly older housing units. Table 10 indicates that less than half (49.8 percent) of native-born householders live in units built before 1970, whereas over half of the naturalized citizens (52.1 percent) and noncitizens (56.4 percent) live in structures built before 1970. The median age of structure is quite similar for native-born and naturalized citizen householders (32 and 33 years, respectively) and slightly older for noncitizen householders (approximately 37 years).

Households headed by foreign-born householders are larger than those headed by native-born householders. Table 11 shows that less than 3 percent of native-born householders, 8.8 percent of naturalized citizen householders, and 10.7 percent of noncitizen householders live in housing units with six or more persons. The same pattern can be seen when examining the median number of persons per household, which is 1.7 for native citizen householders, 2.3 for naturalized citizen householders, and 2.7 for noncitizen householders.

These larger household sizes also lead to more crowding, as indicated by the persons-per-room statistics in table 12. Noncitizen householders have households with the highest incidence of crowding, with 5.5 percent having more than 1.5 persons per room. By contrast, 1.6 percent of households with naturalized citizen householders have more than 1.5 persons per room. The rate of such overcrowding is 0.36 percent for households with native-born householders.

Housing cost burdens (housing cost as a percent of income) are slightly higher for foreign-born householders, although the difference is more pronounced for owner-occupied units. Table 13 shows that 16.4 percent of noncitizen owners and 13.5 percent of naturalized owners have housing cost burdens of 50 percent or more, whereas only 9.1 percent of native-born householders have such burdens. Although housing cost burdens are considerably higher for renters than for owners, the differences across citizenship categories are small. The percentage of native-born renter householders with burdens of 50 percent or more is 18.8 percent, which is very close to the incidence of high housing cost burden for naturalized citizen renters (20.7 percent) and noncitizen renters (19.6 percent).

The incidence of housing problems is similar for native-born and naturalized citizen householders, but noncitizen householders are more likely to live in housing with moderate and severe housing problems. This composite index of housing quality is based on information about plumbing; heating equipment breakdowns and problems; electricity and wiring; leaks, cracks, holes, and peeling paint; evidence of rodents; and quality of common areas in multifamily buildings.⁵ Table 14 shows that severe housing problems affect approximately 2 percent of the housing units of native-born and naturalized citizen householders, whereas 4 percent of the noncitizen householders have severe housing problems. Noncitizen householders also have the highest incidence of moderate housing problems at 6.4 percent.

This article simply describes the range of the new immigration data in the AHS and does not utilize its analysis potential. This information should prove quite useful when analyzing complex housing phenomena, which will be especially important as the role of immigrants in the U.S. housing market grows.