Over a Fifth of Rental Households Foreign-Born

Share of foreign-born households growing slightly.

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New analysis by Chandan Economics of the Census Bureau's 2022 American Community Survey shows 21% of rental demand comes from residents from outside the U.S. That's based on 9.4 million of the 36.3 million rental households that are listed as having a foreign-born head of household.

The rate peaked in 2016 at 21.1%, but has grown steadily since it was at 17.8% in 2000. Domestic immigration policy changes caused a decline in the share of foreign-born renters, slipping to 20% in 2020, a 10-year low. However, the foreign-born share of rental households increased 5.6% and 3.9% in 201 and 2022, respectively.

"Between 2000 and 2022, the number of foreign-born rental households in the US has grown by 47.6% — more than double the growth for US-born rental households (+20.5%) over the same period," according to the research.