Lawful immigrants account for three-quarters of the foreign-born population in the U.S. – 33.8 million people out of 44.7 million in 2015, the most recent year for which numbers were available. Among lawful immigrants, those who hold U.S. citizenship (19.8 million in 2015) outnumber lawful permanent residents (11.9 million).
The rest of the foreign-born population consists of 11 million unauthorized immigrants and 2.1 million people in the U.S. on temporary visas. The total foreign-born population, 13.4% of the U.S. population in 2015, is somewhat below the historic high of 14.8% in 1890, when 9.2 million immigrants lived in the U.S.
