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.