Refugee Resettlement per Capita: Which States Do the Most?

The United States refugee resettlement program helps people from some of the most dramatically troubled situations around the world to find a home in the United States.

Refugees are people who the government has determined have a well-founded fear of persecution, have gone through an extensive vetting process, and who have typically waited many years before arriving in the United States. Among the top countries of origin for refugees over the past decade are Myanmar (Burma), Iraq, Bhutan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iran, Syria, Cuba, and Ukraine. In the U.S., the refugee resettlement program is a public-private partnership of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and nine national resettlement agencies.

Over the past 10 years, the states that have received the most refugees have been Texas (44,000), California (40,000), New York (27,000), and Michigan (23,000).

Nebraska Tops the List of Refugee Arrivals Per Capita

Refugee Arrivals in Past 10 Years Refugee Arrivals per 100,000 State Population Refugee Arrivals per 100,000 immigrants in State
1 Nebraska 7,450 379 5,158
2 North Dakota 2,930 378 8,662
3 Idaho 6,577 346 5,700
4 Kentucky 14,671 325 8,061
5 South Dakota 2,793 312 9,015
6 Vermont 2,001 310 7,356
7 Arizona 19,950 274 2,178
8 Washington 20,454 264 1,789
9 Minesota 13,944 244 2,861
10 Michigan 22,769 227 3,332
11 Utah 7,031 211 2,526
12 New Hampshire 2,672 192 3,253
13 Iowa 6,118 192 3,536
14 Colorado 10,547 181 1,849
15 Maine 2,481 181 4,425
16 Ohio 20,892 177 3,572
17 North Carolina 17,333 164 1,993
18 Oregon 6.933 163 1,681
19 Kansas 4,711 161 2,333
20 Missouri 9,897 160 3,939
21 Georgia 17,170 159 1,585
22 Indiana 10,570 155 2,786
23 Massachusetts 10,488 150 854
24 Wisconsin 8,743 148 2,907
25 Texas 43,527 147 855
26 Maryland 9,037 147 923
27 Tennessee 9,791 140 2,641
28 Pennsylviania 17,723 137 1,888
29 New York 26,586 134 600
30 Rhode Island 1,460 133 916
31 Illinois 16,219 128 899
32 Nevada 3,805 121 656
33 Virginia 8,960 104 837
34 Alaska 740 101 1,253
35 California 39,509 101 378
36 Connecticut 3,481 97 634
37 Florida 17,104 79 371
38 New Mexico 1,555 73 807
39 Oklahoma 2,504 63 1,086
40 Montana 487 44 1,991
41 South Carolina 1,985 38 732
42 New Jersey 2,967 32 139
43 Louisiana 911 20 456
44 Alabama 648 13 367
45 Arkansas 386 13 270
46 Delaware 127 13 125
47 Washington, D.C. 66 10 74
48 West Virginia 142 8 510
49 Mississippi 71 2 113
50 Hawaii 18 1 7
51 Wyoming 1 0 5
United States 458,977 138 1,014
Fig. 1 Immigration Research Initiative analysis of Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, for placement of refugees by federal fiscal year (ending in September), and 2019 American Community Survey data for state population.

These are all states with a large population. A different way to consider the state role in resettlement is to look at refugee arrivals as a share of the state population.

Taken this way,  the states with the highest share of refugees placed may seem surprising. Measuring refugee arrivals as a share 100,000 people in the current state population, are: Nebraska (379), North Dakota (378), Idaho (346), Kentucky (325), South Dakota (312), Vermont (310), and Arizona (274).

A different way to think about resettlement is to calculate refugee arrivals as a share of a state’s overall immigrant population. In some states, refugees are a very substantial part of the overall picture of immigration. In other states, when local residents think about immigrants, refugees are likely to be a small part of that picture. There is a good deal of overlap at the top of the table: Nebraska, North Dakota, Idaho, Kentucky, South Dakota, and Vermont are all among the top states for refugee arrivals per capita and for refugee arrivals as a share of immigrants. But in many states there is a substantial divergence. Maine, for example, is 15th on the list for refugee arrivals per capita, with 181 refugees per 100,000 in the total state population, but 7th for refugees as a share of immigrants, with 4,425 refugees per 100,000 immigrants living in Maine. Missouri is 20th per capita, but 8th as a share of immigrants, and Tennessee is 27th per capita and 16th as a share of immigrants.

Refugee resettlement has also changed dramatically over the past ten years. The president, without action from congress, has a great deal more influence over refugee resettlement than over other aspects of immigration policy. Each year, a cap on the number of refugee arrivals is set by presidential determination. Other factors have an impact on how many refugees are actually resettled, but the total number cannot exceed the cap set by the president.

During the Trump Administration, the number of refugee arrivals plummeted from 85,000 in 2016 to just 12,000 in 2020. The 2022 total was 25,000, as resettlement agencies and the overall program picks up the pieces and rebuilds gradually after a precipitous decline.

The ranking of state resettlement per capita has shifted some over this time, but the states generally maintained roughly the relative positions they had before the reduction in numbers. In 2022, Kentucky is the top state for resettlement per capita, Idaho is second, and Nebraska is third.

Refugee Resettlement: Beginning to Rebuild After a Dramatic Decline

Fig. 1 Immigration Research Initiative analysis of Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, for placement of refugees by federal fiscal year (ending in September), and 2019 American Community Survey data for state population.

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