Columbus has a rapidly-growing immigrant population, with nearly 13% of the total population being foreign-born in 2020. But where exactly are these immigrant coming from, and where are they settling down in Columbus and Franklin County? To answer these questions, I visited the US Census and made this immigrant place of birth map from the raw data.
Click on any census tract to see the total immigrant population in 2020, a percentage breakdown by continent of origin and the top 5 nations of origin for each tract.
From the map, we can see that the Northwest and Northeast parts of Columbus and Franklin County are dominated by immigrants of Asian origin. Hilltop, Linden and parts of the Southeast are much more North American in origin, with the 161/Morse corridors and the Far East largely have African origins. There are relatively few South American or European dominated areas, but they do exist scattered about.
Some common misconceptions are debunked, however. Hilltop through Lincoln Village has long been thought to be the hub of the Mexican immigrant population, but several Latin American nations have significant populations there, including Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia. Many Mexicans seem to be settling in the Linden area now, instead. Meanwhile, Somalia is often considered as the origin of many immigrants in the Morse/161 corridors, and while that population does exist there, these corridors are far more diverse than common thinking.
2020 census tract maps are currently available for all sorts of other demographic and population data. This information in tract format is generally available for Columbus going back to 1930.
