According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security, you may become a United States citizen either at birth or after birth.
To become a citizen at birth, you must:
To become a citizen after birth, you must:
Naturalization is the process by which U.S. citizenship is granted to a foreign citizen or national after they fulfill the requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The United States Census Bureau is the primary source of U.S. citizenship statistics. The major functions of the Census Bureau, a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce, are authorized by Article 2, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that a census of population shall be taken every 10 years, and by Title 13 and Title 26 of the United States Code of Federal Regulations. The Census Bureau is responsible for numerous statistical programs, including census and surveys of households, governments, manufacturing and industries, and for U.S. foreign trade statistics. The first U.S. census was conducted in 1790 for the purposes of apportioning state representation in the House of Representatives and for the apportionment of taxes.
Census Bureau citizenship statistics come primarily from the decennial census and the American Community Survey (ACS). The census provides counts of the population by race and Hispanic origin, and the ACS provides detailed data on citizenship status. These statistics are based on answers to the questions:
See the examples to explore the granularity of data on immigration and statistics.
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publishes statistics on counts of persons obtaining lawful permanent residency in a given year. DHS protects the nation against terrorist attacks. DHS was established by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and is dedicated to achieving this goal while allowing for the free flow of people, goods, and commerce across U.S. borders and through U.S. airports and seaports. DHS consolidates functions from 22 agencies under one vast umbrella with the single critical mission of protecting the United States using state-of-the-art intelligence technology and information.
The American Community Survey (ACS) provides granular citizenship and naturalization statistics for the nation and states, and for subnational geographies, including counties, metropolitan statistical areas, census tracts, places, and congressional districts. Data for each release of the 5-year ACS estimates were collected over a 5-year period ending December 31 of the reference year (e.g., data in the 2012 5-year estimates were collected January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2012). The statistics reported represent the characteristics of the population for the entire period vs. a specific year within that period.
Begin exploring ACS statistics on citizenship and naturalization in Data Planet through an example. This DataSheet compares counts of naturalized persons in California according to the period of time during which they were naturalized:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also publishes statistics on naturalizations. In Sage Data, you'll find counts of naturalized citizens by state of residence and by country of birth. The chart below shows the trends in naturalizations of individuals born in four countries in the Middle East:
Find statistics on native-born, foreign-born, and naturalized citizens by browsing the American Community Survey (ACS) Citizenship and Place of Birth indicator in the indicator tree. The indicators cover citizenship status by place of birth, sex, age, year of entry into the United States, and many more.
Be aware that other sections of the ACS also examine socioeconomic characteristics by citizenship status, including Housing Costs, Health Insurance Coverage, and more:
The chart below compares counts of native-born vs. foreign-born persons in five Texas counties: