Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 12, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 15 The Immigrant Entrepreneur in Worcester 4 recently as 1970, 88 percent of Worcester's foreign -born population was from Europe and Northern America. Recently, that trend has reversed—a plurality of immigrants to the city today are from Latin America, and the foreign-born from Asia and Africa also outnumber Europeans. The total number of foreign-born people living in Worcester has also ebbed and flowed. More than 25 percent of the population was foreign-born between 1870 and 1930, including fully one-third in 1910. The national rate around this time varied between 10 and 15 percent. From 1930 on, though, Worcester saw a drop in foreign-born residents that mirrored a national trend. By 1990, less than 10 percent of the Worcester population had been born outside the U.S., compared to around 8 percent nationally. The country as a whole had hit a low point in 1970, when less than 5 percent of the population was foreign-born. The number of immigrants in the country rebounded in both Worcester and the country at large, however, and today around 21.5 percent of Worcester residents and 13.5 percent of United States residents were born in another country. Worcester's Current Immigrant Population The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are nearly 40,000 foreign-born residents in Worcester currently, making up 21.5 percent of the total population. Around 100 countries are represented, with the largest communities hailing from Ghana (10.2 percent), the Dominican Republic (8.8 percent), Vietnam (8.8 percent), Albania (6.3 percent), and Brazil (4.9 percent). The most common world regions are Latin America, the origin of around 30 percent of the foreign-born population, Asia (29 percent), Africa (23 percent), and Europe (18 percent), with Northern America and Australia representing less than 1 percent of the total. Nearly 47 percent of Worcester's foreign-born populace are naturalized citizens, slightly below the Massachusetts rate of 52 percent. Worcester's foreign-born population is similar to the native-born community in terms of educational attainment. Around 78.5 percent of foreign-born residents above age 25 have a high school education or higher, compared to 86.5 percent of native-born residents. This gap is smaller than the one at the state level, where 79.9 percent of the foreign-born have a high school education, compared to 93.1 percent of the native- born residents. The foreign-born in Worcester are more likely to have a bachelor's degree, with 19 percent reporting one, than native-born residents, at 18.2 percent. This is a departure from the state as a whole, where 17.2 percent of foreign-born residents have their bachelor's degree, compared to 24.5 percent of native-born residents. Foreign-born and native-born Worcesterites are nearly identical in terms of median household income, with both registering at around $45,000 per year. This is a departure from statewide numbers, where the foreign-born median income of around $60,000 is below the median income of $73,500 for native-born residents. In both cases, there is a large gap between naturalized citizens, who make a median of nearly $52,000 in Worcester, and the non-citizen foreign-born, who make nearly $36,000. Worcester's foreign-born have higher rates of poverty than the native- Map 1: Predominant Foreign-born Population by Continent of Origin Source: 2016 5-year American Community Survey

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