What Utah's immigrant population looked like in 1900

·Stacker

Everett Collection // Shutterstock
Everett Collection // Shutterstock

Since the first successful English colony settled in Jamestown in 1607, flows of immigrants have arrived on American shores seeking a new life. 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. Stacker compiled a list of the largest sources of immigrants in Utah in 1900 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. New York originally used Castle Garden (now Castle Clinton) as its immigration processing hub, but within a few decades realized that a massive influx of immigrants necessitated a larger venue. Ellis Island opened on Jan. 1, 1892, to the first of more than 12 million individuals who entered the U.S. through its doors.

Keep reading to find out more about the historical immigrant community in your home state or explore the data on your own on our site, GitHub, or data.world.

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1 / 42

#1. England

Utah
- Number of residents: 18,879
- Percent of foreign born residents: 35.11%
- Percent of total state population: 6.82%
National
- Number of residents: 843,491
- Percent of foreign born residents: 8.06%
- #4 most common country of origin

2 / 42

#2. Denmark

Utah
- Number of residents: 9,182
- Percent of foreign born residents: 17.07%
- Percent of total state population: 3.32%
National
- Number of residents: 154,616
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.48%
- #13 most common country of origin

3 / 42

#3. Sweden

Utah
- Number of residents: 7,025
- Percent of foreign born residents: 13.06%
- Percent of total state population: 2.54%
National
- Number of residents: 574,625
- Percent of foreign born residents: 5.49%
- #5 most common country of origin

4 / 42

#4. Scotland

Utah
- Number of residents: 3,143
- Percent of foreign born residents: 5.84%
- Percent of total state population: 1.14%
National
- Number of residents: 234,699
- Percent of foreign born residents: 2.24%
- #11 most common country of origin

6 / 42

#6. Wales

Utah
- Number of residents: 2,141
- Percent of foreign born residents: 3.98%
- Percent of total state population: 0.77%
National
- Number of residents: 93,744
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.90%
- #20 most common country of origin

7 / 42

#7. Norway

Utah
- Number of residents: 2,128
- Percent of foreign born residents: 3.96%
- Percent of total state population: 0.77%
National
- Number of residents: 338,426
- Percent of foreign born residents: 3.24%
- #9 most common country of origin

8 / 42

#8. Ireland

Utah
- Number of residents: 1,516
- Percent of foreign born residents: 2.82%
- Percent of total state population: 0.55%
National
- Number of residents: 1,619,409
- Percent of foreign born residents: 15.48%
- #2 most common country of origin

9 / 42

#9. Switzerland

Utah
- Number of residents: 1,469
- Percent of foreign born residents: 2.73%
- Percent of total state population: 0.53%
National
- Number of residents: 115,959
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.11%
- #15 most common country of origin

11 / 42

#11. Italy

Utah
- Number of residents: 1,062
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.97%
- Percent of total state population: 0.38%
National
- Number of residents: 484,703
- Percent of foreign born residents: 4.63%
- #6 most common country of origin

12 / 42

#12. Finland

Utah
- Number of residents: 734
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.36%
- Percent of total state population: 0.27%
National
- Number of residents: 63,440
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.61%
- #22 most common country of origin

13 / 42

#13. China

Utah
- Number of residents: 544
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.01%
- Percent of total state population: 0.20%
National
- Number of residents: 106,659
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.02%
- #16 most common country of origin

14 / 42

#14. Holland

Utah
- Number of residents: 523
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.97%
- Percent of total state population: 0.19%
National
- Number of residents: 105,098
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.00%
- #17 most common country of origin

16 / 42

#16. Austria

Utah
- Number of residents: 240
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.45%
- Percent of total state population: 0.09%
National
- Number of residents: 276,702
- Percent of foreign born residents: 2.65%
- #10 most common country of origin

17 / 42

#17. France

Utah
- Number of residents: 220
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.41%
- Percent of total state population: 0.08%
National
- Number of residents: 104,534
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.00%
- #18 most common country of origin

18 / 42

#18. Australia

Utah
- Number of residents: 161
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.30%
- Percent of total state population: 0.06%
National
- Number of residents: 7,041
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.07%
- #34 most common country of origin

19 / 42

#19. Pacific Islands (except Phillipine Islands)

Utah
- Number of residents: 149
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.28%
- Percent of total state population: 0.05%
National
- Number of residents: 2,659
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.03%
- #38 most common country of origin

21 / 42

#21. Africa

Utah
- Number of residents: 97
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.18%
- Percent of total state population: 0.04%
National
- Number of residents: 2,577
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.02%
- #40 most common country of origin

22 / 42

#22. Hungary

Utah
- Number of residents: 88
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.16%
- Percent of total state population: 0.03%
National
- Number of residents: 145,815
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.39%
- #14 most common country of origin

23 / 42

#23. Born at Sea

Utah
- Number of residents: 76
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.14%
- Percent of total state population: 0.03%
National
- Number of residents: 8,310
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.08%
- #32 most common country of origin

24 / 42

#24. Poland

Utah
- Number of residents: 65
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.12%
- Percent of total state population: 0.02%
National
- Number of residents: 383,595
- Percent of foreign born residents: 3.67%
- #8 most common country of origin

26 / 42

#26. Belgium

Utah
- Number of residents: 29
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.05%
- Percent of total state population: 0.01%
National
- Number of residents: 29,848
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.29%
- #24 most common country of origin

27 / 42

#27. India

Utah
- Number of residents: 23
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.04%
- Percent of total state population: 0.01%
National
- Number of residents: 2,069
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.02%
- #42 most common country of origin

28 / 42

#28. Central America

Utah
- Number of residents: 19
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.04%
- Percent of total state population: 0.01%
National
- Number of residents: 3,911
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.04%
- #36 most common country of origin

29 / 42

#29. Turkey

Utah
- Number of residents: 18
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.03%
- Percent of total state population: 0.01%
National
- Number of residents: 9,949
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.10%
- #30 most common country of origin

30 / 42

#30. Other Countries

Utah
- Number of residents: 15
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.03%
- Percent of total state population: 0.01%
National
- Number of residents: 2,587
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.02%
- #39 most common country of origin

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31 / 42

#31. Bohemia

Utah
- Number of residents: 13
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.02%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 156,999
- Percent of foreign born residents: 1.50%
- #12 most common country of origin

32 / 42

#32. Spain

Utah
- Number of residents: 8
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.01%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 7,284
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.07%
- #33 most common country of origin

33 / 42

#33. Portugal

Utah
- Number of residents: 8
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.01%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 37,144
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.36%
- #23 most common country of origin

34 / 42

#34. Greece

Utah
- Number of residents: 8
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.01%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 8,655
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.08%
- #31 most common country of origin

36 / 42

#36. Asia (except China, Japan, and India)

Utah
- Number of residents: 8
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.01%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 11,928
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.11%
- #27 most common country of origin

37 / 42

#37. South America

Utah
- Number of residents: 7
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.01%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 4,814
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.05%
- #35 most common country of origin

38 / 42

#38. West Indies (except Cuba and Puerto Rico)

Utah
- Number of residents: 5
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.01%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 14,468
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.14%
- #26 most common country of origin

39 / 42

#39. Luxemburg

Utah
- Number of residents: 2
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.00%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 3,049
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.03%
- #37 most common country of origin

41 / 42

#41. Roumania

Utah
- Number of residents: 1
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.00%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 15,043
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.14%
- #25 most common country of origin

42 / 42

#42. Cuba

Utah
- Number of residents: 1
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.00%
- Percent of total state population: 0.00%
National
- Number of residents: 11,159
- Percent of foreign born residents: 0.11%
- #28 most common country of origin