PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN/Stacker) — Oregon looks a lot different in 2022 than it did in 1900, including its immigrant populations.

With the help of Stacker.com, KOIN 6 News compiled a list of the top immigrant populations in Oregon at the start of the 20th century.

From Irish immigrants fleeing famine to Chinese immigrants settling in California during the Gold Rush, more than 86 million people legally immigrated to the United States between 1783 and 2019. There have been four major waves of immigration to the U.S., beginning with settlers from northern and western Europe seeking land on the frontier from 1820 to 1880.

The immigrants counted in the 1900 Census hailed primarily from southern and eastern Europe, drawn by the call of industrialization in America.

At the advent of the era of world wars, there was a dearth of immigration, but after 1965, individuals from Asia and Latin America began to move to the U.S. in droves.

Though the national immigrant population today and in 1900 is comparable by percentage, hovering around 14% of the overall U.S. population, the raw population tells a different story. Today, the U.S. is home to 44.7 million immigrants, whereas that number was just shy of 10.5 million at the time of the 1900 Census.

By transcribing a previously untranscribed dataset from the U.S. Census Bureau, countries are ranked by total residents who were born in that country.

Immigration to the U.S. was handled at the state level prior to 1890, with each state government designating its own processes and checkpoints.

Below, you will find the top 10 largest immigrant populations in Oregon in 1900.

#10. Scotland

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 2,283
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 3.47%
  • Percent of total state population: 0.55%

National

  • Number of residents: 234,699
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 2.24%
  • #11 most common country of origin

#9. Japan

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 2,522
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 3.84%
  • Percent of total state population: 0.61%

National

  • Number of residents: 81,590
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 0.78%
  • #21 most common country of origin

#8. Switzerland

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 2,677
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 4.07%
  • Percent of total state population: 0.65%

National

  • Number of residents: 115,959
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 1.11%
  • #15 most common country of origin

#7. Norway

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 2,789
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 4.24%
  • Percent of total state population: 0.67%

National

  • Number of residents: 338,426
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 3.24%
  • #9 most common country of origin

#6. Ireland

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 4,210
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 6.40%
  • Percent of total state population: 1.02%

National

  • Number of residents: 1,619,409
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 15.48%
  • #2 most common country of origin

#5. Sweden

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 4,555
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 6.93%
  • Percent of total state population: 1.10%

National

  • Number of residents: 574,625
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 5.49%
  • #5 most common country of origin

#4. England

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 5,663
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 8.61%
  • Percent of total state population: 1.37%

National

  • Number of residents: 843,491
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 8.06%
  • #4 most common country of origin

#3. Canada

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 6,908
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 10.51%
  • Percent of total state population: 1.67%

National

  • Number of residents: 1,183,225
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 11.31%
  • #3 most common country of origin

#2. China

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 9,367
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 14.25%
  • Percent of total state population: 2.27%

National

  • Number of residents: 106,659
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 1.02%
  • #16 most common country of origin

#1. Germany

Oregon

  • Number of residents: 18,202
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 27.68%
  • Percent of total state population: 4.40%

National

  • Number of residents: 2,669,164
  • Percent of foreign-born residents: 25.52%
  • #1 most common country of origin

For a full list, click here.

Editor’s Note: KOIN 6 News edited this story originally published on Stacker.com to include only 10 countries on the list, extract specific words and add more words as necessary. This article has been re-published pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.