Kinder Institute sociologists available to discuss fast growth, mostly in suburbs, of Houston’s foreign-born population

Rice University Office of Public Affairs / News & Media Relations EXPERT ALERT Amy Hodges 713-348-6777 amy.hodges@rice.edu

Kinder Institute sociologists available to discuss fast growth, mostly in suburbs, of Houston’s foreign-born population

HOUSTON – (Oct. 31, 2014) – Metro Houston’s foreign-born population is growing fast – and the vast majority of new foreign-born residents are moving to the suburbs, not to the city of Houston, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

Stephen Klineberg, founding director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, and Michael Emerson, academic director of the institute, are available to discuss a Kinder Institute analysis of the report (available online at http://bit.ly/106LF8T) and what these findings mean for the Houston metropolitan region.  

According to the report analysis, metro Houston’s foreign-born population grew by almost 60 percent — from 900,000 to 1.4 million — between 2000 and 2013 (almost double the national average of 32 percent). The report data also shows that 23 percent of metro Houston residents are now foreign-born, compared with 17 percent for metropolitan areas nationwide, a significantly higher number than figures from Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio.

“With nearly a quarter of our metro area comprised of foreign-born residents, Houston is leading the U.S. and Texas with regard to rising immigrant populations,” Klineberg said. “All of this reflects the epic transportation occurring across all of America as the Anglo baby boomers move into retirement and are replaced by a multiethnic, increasingly immigrant community.”

Furthermore, 80 percent of new foreign-born residents are moving to suburbs in metro Houston, not the city of Houston. The foreign-born population of metro Houston’s suburbs more than doubled between 2000 and 2013, from 380,000 people to 800,000 people. These figures are similar to national trends.

The foreign-born population grew rapidly in all four large Texas metropolitan areas. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area showed similar trends to Houston between 2000 and 2013, while San Antonio and Austin showed somewhat different trends in the city-suburban split. In San Antonio, 68 percent of new foreign-born residents live in the city, while in Austin that figure is 40 percent.

For a full copy of the report, “Immigrants Continue to Disperse, with Fastest Growth in the Suburbs,” by Jill H. Wilson and Nicole Prchal Svajlenka, visit http://bit.ly/1xEpMZs. To read the analysis by the Kinder Institute, visit http://bit.ly/106LF8T.

To speak with Klineberg or Emerson, contact Amy Hodges, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 713-348-6777 or amy.hodges@rice.edu. 

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