Quiz: How much do you know about U.S. immigration?
In preparation for the presidential election, for which immigration is a top issue, test your knowledge with our 15-question quiz on legal and undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
Immigration has been one of the most hotly debated topics of the presidential race. Test your knowledge of this often-controversial topic with our 15-question quiz on immigration.
(Want context beyond a correct answer? Scroll down past the poll to see our answers guide. App users, click here to take the quiz.)
Spoiler alert: Answers guide
Want more information about the right answers? We have extended answers for all of them below.
How many immigrants live in the United States?
There were 42.4 million legal and undocumented immigrants in the U.S. as of July 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
What percentage of the U.S. population are immigrants?
They made up 13.3 percent of the population in 2014, the highest percentage in more than a century.
Which state is home to the most immigrants?
“In 2013, the top five U.S. states by number of immigrants were California (10.3 million), New York and Texas (4.4 million each), Florida (3.8 million), and New Jersey (1.9 million).
“When classified by the share of immigrants out of the total state population, the top five states in 2013 were California (27 percent), New York and New Jersey (22 percent each), and Florida and Nevada (19 percent each),” according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Which region was the source of the highest number of immigrants to the U.S. in the past year?
“As recently as 2008, immigrants arriving within the past year to the U.S. who were born in Asia have outnumbered those born in Latin America," according to the Pew Research Center.
"With the Great Recession, Latin American immigration slowed sharply, especially from Mexico. The number of new immigrants from Latin America has been about steady since then, but the number of newly arrived Asian immigrants has continued to rise."
Percent of immigrants from Mexico in 1960:
They made up almost 6 percent, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Percent of immigrants from Mexico in 2014:
They made up 27.6 percent of all immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
What percent of immigrants are naturalized U.S. citizens?
“In 2013, close to 47 percent of immigrants (19.3 million) were naturalized U.S. citizens. The remaining 53 percent (22.1 million) included lawful permanent residents, unauthorized immigrants, and legal residents on temporary visas, such as students and temporary workers,” according to the Migration Policy Institute.
About how many immigrants obtain lawful permanent residence in the U.S. each year?
In 2013, 990,553 foreign nationals became lawful permanent residents, also known as green-card holders, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
More than half of those new green-card recipients were status adjusters, or former refugees, asylees, temporary workers, foreign students, unauthorized immigrants or family members of U.S. citizens and green-card holders that where living here before 2013, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
How many undocumented immigrants are there in the U.S.?
There were an estimated 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in 2014, about 3.5 percent of the country’s population, according to the Pew Research Center.
Which country is currently the largest source of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.?
“Mexicans make up about half of all unauthorized immigrants (49 percent), though their numbers have been declining in recent years,” Pew stated last year.
In 2012, the top 10 countries of origin were, in order: Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the Philippines, India, Korea, China, Ecuador and Vietnam.
How does Arizona rank for the total number of undocumented immigrants in the state?
Arizona ranks ninth in terms of the total number of undocumented immigrants, and seventh in terms of share, according to an analysis of the 50 states and the District of Columbia by the Migration Policy Institute.
Arizona has 264,000 undocumented immigrants. They make up 4.1 percent of the state's total population, according to the institute. California ranks first in terms of both number and share, with 3 million undocumented immigrants, or 8.3 percent of the state's total population.
How much does it cost to deport an undocumented immigrant?
It costs $12,500 to deport one undocumented immigrant, according to a 2011 assessment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Kumar Kibble. By that number, deporting about 11 million people would cost $137.5 billion.
True or false: The Obama administration has deported more undocumented immigrants than any previous administration.
True: The annual number of deportations reached a record 419,384 in fiscal year 2012, according to 2014 data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"Between 2009 and 2012, the Obama administration deported 1.6 million immigrants. By comparison, 2 million immigrants were deported during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration," wrote Pew. The total number of deportations under the Obama administration surpassed 2 million in April 2014, just more than five years into his administration.
About what percent of K-12 students in the U.S. have at least one undocumented-immigrant parent?
About 7 percent of K-12 students in the U.S. had at least one undocumented-immigrant parent in 2012, according to Pew. Of these students, 79 percent were born in the U.S., making them U.S. citizens.
In Nevada, 18 percent of students have at least one undocumented-immigrant parent, the largest share in the nation. Other top states for this measure include California and Texas, both with 13 percent, and Arizona, where 11 percent of K-12 students have at least one undocumented-immigrant parent.
According to polls, what do the majority of Americans want the government to do with undocumented immigrants?
About 72 percent of Americans – including 80 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of independents and 56 percent of Republicans – said undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. should be allowed to stay in this country legally if they meet certain requirements, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in May 2015.
"A majority of those who favor granting legal status for people in the U.S. illegally – 42 percent of the public overall – say they should be able to apply for U.S. citizenship. About a quarter of the public (26 percent) say they should only be able to apply for permanent residency," Pew wrote.