1

2

-

-

-

-

-

-

- 3

1 See Appendix D in the Technical Documentation to the Current Population Survey, 

2008 Annual Social and Economic Supplement.

2 All comparisons are statistically significant at the 95-percent confidence level.

3 See Nelson, Charles T. and Robert J Mills, 2001. The March CPS Health Insurance 

Verification Question and its Effect on Estimates of the Uninsured, U.S. Census 

Bureau.

Office of Immigration Statistics

Policy directorate

Fact Sheet

FeBrUary 2009

The Foreign-born Component of the 

Uninsured Population 

randall Monger

1

This Office of Immigration Statistics Fact Sheet provides information on trends in the population 

without health insurance coverage by nativity and citizenship status. Data were obtained from 

the Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) of 

the U.S. Census Bureau. In the ASEC Supplement, questions regarding health insurance coverage 

ask respondents if they were covered by specific types of health insurance at any time during the 

previous year (i.e., “At any time in 2007, were you covered by Medicare?”). Estimates of the 

uninsured population presented in this report therefore refer to the number of individuals not 

covered by health insurance during the entire year.

Findings

During 2007, 12.4 million foreign-born residents did 

not have health insurance coverage (see Figure 1). While 

the foreign-born population represented 12.5 percent 

of the total U.S. population, foreign-born individuals 

accounted for 27.1 percent of the uninsured population 

(see Figure 2). The foreign-born share of the uninsured 

population increased from 20.7 percent to 24.5 percent 

between 1998 and 2000 but remained stable between 

2001 and 2007. 

The uninsured rates of the foreign-born population have 

historically been higher than the rates of the native-born 

population (see Figure 3). During 2007, for example, 

33.2 percent of the foreign-born population was not 

covered by health insurance compared to 13.7 percent 

of the native-born population. The uninsured rate for 

foreign-born citizens (17.6 percent in 2007) was slight

ly higher than the rate of the native-born population, 

whereas the uninsured rate for foreign born non-citi

zens (43.8 percent) was substantially higher than the 

rate of the native population. Between 2001 and 2007, 

uninsured rates for natives and foreign-born non-citi

zens increased while the uninsured rate for foreign-born 

citizens remained statistically unchanged.

Adjusting the uninsured estimates between the foreignborn and native-born populations for differences in age 

composition only marginally affected the uninsured 

rates (see Table 1). The age-standardized uninsured rates 

of the foreign-born, that is, the rates that would be ex

pected if the foreign-born population had the same age 

structure as the native population, were higher than the 

uninsured rate of the native population from 1993 to 

2007 (see Table 1). 

aPPendix

Beginning in the 2000 ASEC Supplement, survey re

spondents who answered that they were not covered by 

each type of health insurance coverage were asked to 

confirm that they were not covered by any type of health 

insurance during the year. Nearly 8 percent of individu

als who initially reported not being covered by any type 

of insurance subsequently answered that they were cov

ered at some time during the year. 

For More inForMation

Visit the Office of Immigration Statistics web page at 

http://www.dhs.gov/immigrationstatistics.
Millions

1 These estimates reect the results of follow-up verication questions that were

asked of people who responded “no” to all questions about specic types of health 

insurance coverage in order to verify whether they were actually uninsured.

2 Implementation of Census 2000-based population controls occurred for the 2002 

ASEC, which collected data for 2001.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1994 to 2008 Annual 

Social and Economic Supplements.

1993 1995 1997 19991 20012 2003 2005 2007

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Total

Native-born

Foreign-born

Foreign-born citizen

Foreign-born non-citizen

Percentage of total

1 These estimates reect the results of follow-up verication questions that were

asked of people who responded “no” to all questions about specic types of health 

insurance coverage in order to verify whether they were actually uninsured.

2 Implementation of Census 2000-based population controls occurred for the 2002 

ASEC, which collected data for 2001.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1994 to 2008 Annual Social 

and Economic Supplements.

1993 1995 1997 19991 20012 0 2003 2005 2007

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Total population

Native-born population

Foreign-born population

Foreign-born citizen population

Foreign-born non-citizen population

Proportion

1 These estimates reect the results of follow-up verication questions that were

asked of people who responded “no” to all questions about specic types of health 

insurance coverage in order to verify whether they were actually uninsured.

2 Implementation of Census 2000-based population controls occurred for the 2002 

ASEC, which collected data for 2001.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1994 to 2008 Annual Social 

and Economic Supplements.

1993 1995 1997 19991 20012 2003 2005 2007

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Native-born

Foreign-born

Foreign-born citizen

Foreign-born non-citizen

Figure 1.

Persons Without Health Insurance Coverage by

Nativity and Citizenship Status: 1993 to 2007

Figure 2.

Distribution of Persons Without Health Insurance

Coverage by Nativity and Citizenship Status:

1993 to 2007

Figure 3.

Percentage of Population Group Without Health 

Insurance Coverage: 1993 to 2007

table 1.

Percent of native-born and Foreign-born Population Without 

Health insurance coverage

year

native Foreign-born

actual actual standardized

2007. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.7 33.2 31.5

2006. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.2 33.8 31.8

2005. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.8 33.0 32.1

2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.5 32.8 31.0

2003. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.5 34.1 32.7

2002. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.3 32.9 31.8

2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.7 32.9 31.2

2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.8 31.6 31.2

1999. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.9 32.8 32.5

1998. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.9 33.7 34.3

1997. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.8 33.9 33.8

1996. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.5 33.3 33.4

1995. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.6 32.5 31.5

1994. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.5 32.8 33.2

1993. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.7 32.4 32.7

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1994 to 2008 Annual Social and 

Economic Supplements.

2 DHS Office of Immigration Statistics