August 18, 2017

Immigrants from all over the world call Johnson County home, including non-citizens and naturalized citizens. Almost 48,000 Johnson county residents, or 8% of Johnson County's current population, came to the United States from another country, according to data from the U.S Census Bureau. Approximately half of all immigrants in the community are naturalized U.S. citizens. Growth in the immigrant population has outpaced growth in the general population by more than three times over the past decade. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that Johnson County has the largest number of immigrants in the five-county, bi-state Kansas City region. UCS' new fact sheet on Immigration in Johnson County includes the countries that are represented in the current immigrant population, as well as the most commonlylanguages spoken, age distribution and how poverty impacts immigrants.

Johnson County is home to people with diverse racial and ethnic identities. The U.S. Census Bureau recently released survey results detailing the racial and ethnic categories of Johnson County residents. In UCS' new fact sheet on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Johnson County, an analysis of the data reveals the scope and complexity of racial and ethnic diversity of our community. These results are interpreted with caution, because survey respondents are able to select multiple options to identify their race. For example, a person identifying as White might also identify as some other race. However, ethnicity is limited to only two options: Hispanic or Latino, and non-Hispanic or Latino.

Data indicates that there is more diversity in the younger age groups than in the older age groups, which suggests that Johnson County's population will become more racially and ethnically diverse as the current population ages.