Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians account for large and growing shares of the economy and population in the electoral swing state of Ohio. Immigrants make up nearly 4% of the state’s population, and almost half of them are naturalized U.S. citizens eligible to vote. “New Americans”—immigrants and the children of immigrants—account for 2.4% of all registered voters in the state. Latinos and Asians account for slightly more than 4% of all Ohioans and wield $13.2 billion in consumer purchasing power. At last count, the sales and receipts of businesses owned by Latinos and Asians totaled more than $6.4 billion. Ohio is also home to the nation’s second largest Somali population, whose many businesses contribute to the state’s economy.

Immigrants and their children are growing shares of Ohio’s population and electorate.

• The foreign-born share of Ohio’s population rose from 2.4% in 1990,¹ to 3.0% in 2000,² to 3.7% in 2007,³ according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Ohio was home to 419,443 immigrants in 45 2007,⁴ which is roughly equal to the total population of Miami, FL.⁵
• 49.2% of immigrants (or 206,404 people) in Ohio were naturalized U.S. citizens in 2007⁶—meaning that they are eligible to vote.
• 2.4% (or 142,061) of all registered voters in Ohio were “New Americans”—naturalized citizens or the U.S.-born children of immigrants who were raised during the current era of immigration from Latin America and Asia which began in 1965—according to an analysis of 2006 Census Bureau data by ⁷ Rob Paral & Associates.

 4.1% of Ohioans are Latino or Asian.

• The Latino share of Ohio’s population grew from 1.3% in 1990⁸, to 1.9% in 2000⁹, to 2.5% (or 286,673 people) in 2007¹⁰. The Asian share of the population grew from 0.8% in 1990¹¹, to 1.2% in 2000,¹² to 1.6% (or 183,471 people) in 2007,¹³ according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Latinos comprised 1.3% (or 74,000) of Ohio voters in the 2008 elections, and Asians just under 1% (or 51,000), according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Although the numbers of Latino and Asian voters were relatively small, they were equivalent to nearly half of the narrow margin of victory (258,897 votes) by which Barack Obama won this key battleground state.

 Franklin County is home to roughly a quarter of Ohio’s foreign-born population—especially the Somali refugee community—and they contribute to the state’s political and economic landscape.

• The share of Franklin County’s foreign-born population increased from 3.4% in 1990,¹⁴ to 6.0% in 1516 to 8.6% (or 96,589 people) in 2000,¹⁵2007,¹⁶ according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Columbus, Ohio, ranked 2nd in percent of new foreign-born residents (those who came to the United States since 2000) compared to other major metropolitan areas, according to a study by Community Research Partners.¹⁷
• Somali Community Access Network The estimates that Central Ohio is home to more than 45,000 Somali Americans—making it the second largest Somali population in the United States; second only to Minneapolis, MN.¹⁸
• Somalis own more than 400 small businesses in Columbus, Ohio, which contribute revenue to the local economy.¹⁹
• Somali community leaders estimate that as much as 30% of the Somali population in Central Ohio (roughly 14,000 people) has now gained U.S. citizenship—and they vote, according to news reports.²⁰

 Latino and Asian entrepreneurs and consumers add billions of dollars and tens-of-thousands of jobs to Ohio’s economy.

• The 2008 purchasing power of Ohio’s Latinos totaled $6.1 billion—an increase of 291% since 1990. Asian buying power totaled $7.1 billion—an increase of 280% since 1990, according to the 21 Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.²¹
• Ohio’s 13,740 Asian-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $5.1 billion and employed 42,955 people in 2002, the last year for which data is available.²² The state’s 7,109 Latino-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $1.3 billion and employed 11,348 people in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners.²³

 Immigrants are essential to Ohio’s economy as workers.

• Immigrants comprised 4.2% of the state’s workforce in 2007 (or 244,509 workers), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.²⁴
• Unauthorized immigrants comprised 1.1% of the state’s workforce in 2008 (or 65,000 workers), according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.²⁵
• If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Ohio, the state would lose $4.0 billion in expenditures, $1.8 billion in economic output, and approximately 25,019 jobs, even accounting for adequate market adjustment time, according to a report by the Perryman Group.²⁶

 Immigrants in Ohio Excel Educationally.

• The number of immigrants in Ohio with a college degree increased by 30.7% between 2000 and 2007, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.²⁷
• 39.6% of Ohio’s foreign-born population age 25 and older had a bachelor’s or higher degree in 2007, compared to 23.3% of native-born persons age 25 and older.²⁸
• In Ohio, 72.1% of all children between the ages of 5 and 17 in families that spoke a language other than English at home also spoke English “very well” as of 2007.²⁹

 Endnotes
1 U.S. Census Bureau, The Foreign-Born Population: 2000, December 2003.
2 Ibid.
3 2007 American Community Survey (1-Year Estimates).
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Rob Paral and Associates, The New American Electorate: The Growing Political Power of Immigrants and Their Children (Washington, DC: Immigration Policy Center, American Immigration Law Foundation, October 2008).
8 U.S. Census Bureau, The Hispanic Population: 2000, May 2001.
9 Ibid.
10 2007 American Community Survey (1-Year Estimates).
11 U.S. Census Bureau, The Asian Population: 2000, February 2002.
12 Ibid.
13 2007 American Community Survey (1-Year Estimates).
14 U.S. Census Bureau, Franklin County Estimates, 1990.
15U.S. Census Bureau, Franklin County Estimates, 2000.
162007 American Community Survey (1-Year Estimates).
17 Community Research Partners, Benchmarking Central Ohio 2009 (Columbus, OH: Community Research Partners, March 2009).
18 Jibril Hirsi, “The Somali Community is a Promising Economic Powerhouse in Ohio Source,” SomaliCAN Outreach Newsletter, August 2009.
19 Ibid.
20 Tom Bergerding, “Columbus Somalis Gain U.S. Citizenship, Head For The Polls,” WOSU News, October 29, 2008.
21 Jeffrey M. Humphreys, The Multicultural Economy 2008 (Athens, GA: Selig Center for Economic Growth, University of Georgia, 2008).
22 U.S. Census Bureau, Asian-Owned Firms: 2002, August 2006.
23 U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2002, August 2006.
24 2007 American Community Survey (1-Year Estimates).
25 Jeffrey S. Passel and D’Vera Cohn, A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, April 14, 2009).
26 The Perryman Group, An Essential Resource: An Analysis of the Economic Impact of Undocumented Workers on Business Activity in the US with Estimated Effects by State and by Industry (Waco, TX: April 2008).
27 Migration Policy Institute Data Hub, Ohio: Language & Education 2007.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.