Florida Has the Second-Highest Proportion of Immigrant Students in Higher Education
19.2% of Florida’s college population are first-generation immigrants.
Florida ranks second in the United States for the proportion of college students who are first-generation immigrants, according to a new analysis conducted by immigration law experts at Shoreline Immigration.
The data reveals that 19.2% of Florida’s higher education population consists of students born abroad. Out of the 1,020,000 college students currently enrolled in the state, approximately 196,000 are first-generation immigrants.
Leading the national rankings is Minnesota, where 20.1% of college students are first-generation immigrants. The state’s total higher education enrollment of 304,000 includes around 61,000 students born outside the U.S.
California holds third place, with 15.3% of its college population made up of first-generation immigrant students. While California does not top the rankings by percentage, it leads in raw numbers, boasting 410,000 immigrant students out of a total enrollment of 2,677,000.
At the other end of the spectrum, Missouri ranks lowest, with only 1.4% of its 285,000 higher education students being first-generation immigrants—a total of just 4,000 students. Louisiana and South Carolina follow closely, with 2.2% and 2.3%, respectively.
Louisiana has about 5,000 immigrant students out of 229,000 enrolled, while South Carolina counts 6,000 immigrant students among its 262,000 college attendees.
These findings highlight stark contrasts across the U.S. in terms of immigrant representation in higher education, with states like Florida, Minnesota, and California attracting far greater proportions of immigrant students compared to others.
Source: Higher Ed Immigration Portal
