The United States hosted 5.3 million Caribbean immigrants in 2024 — 10 percent of the nation's 50.2 million foreign-born population — according to the Migration Policy Institute's latest Spotlight, based on U.S. Census Bureau 2024 American Community Survey data. The population has grown 41 percent since 2010, nearly twice as fast as the overall U.S. immigrant population (26 percent) over the same period.

Approximately 90 percent of Caribbean immigrants in 2024 came from four countries:

• Cuba: 1,689,000 (32.1 percent), up 53 percent since 2010
• Dominican Republic: 1,300,000 (24.7 percent), up 48 percent
• Jamaica: 888,000 (16.9 percent)
• Haiti: 859,000 (16.3 percent), up 46 percent

In 1980, the Caribbean-born population stood at just 1.3 million.

What is driving recent arrivals?

MPI points to political volatility, economic instability, and natural disasters. The assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 triggered deep insecurity in Haiti, and pandemic-era economic deterioration in Cuba produced the largest emigration of Cubans in more than 30 years. Half of all Cuban immigrants and 47 percent of Haitians arrived in 2010 or later.

Historically, U.S. labor demand shaped the flow: Caribbean workers helped build the Panama Canal in the early 20th century, filled wartime agricultural shortages, and staffed post-war health care and agriculture jobs. The 1965 removal of nationality-based immigration quotas, which had limited non-European immigration, opened family- and employment-based pathways. The 1959 Cuban Revolution alone prompted an estimated 1.4 million people to flee to the United States — the region's first large-scale humanitarian exodus.

Where do Caribbean immigrants live?

Florida and New York together housed 63 percent of the population as of 2019-23; another 16 percent lived in New Jersey, Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania. Five counties — Miami-Dade and Broward in Florida, and Kings, Bronx, and Queens in New York — accounted for 39 percent of the total. About 67 percent lived in the New York, Miami, Boston, Orlando, and Tampa metro areas. In Miami, 20 percent of all residents were born in the Caribbean.

Which immigration pathways do they use?

Family reunification dominates. Of the 194,000 Caribbean nationals who became lawful permanent residents in FY 2023 — one in six of all 1.2 million new green-card holders that year — 76 percent obtained status through family sponsorship, versus 64 percent of new LPRs overall. Another 22 percent adjusted from refugee or asylum status, compared with 8 percent nationally. Employment-based sponsorship accounted for just 1 percent, against 17 percent for all new LPRs.

About 60 percent of Caribbean immigrants were naturalized U.S. citizens as of 2024, above the 51 percent rate for immigrants overall. Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago naturalized at the highest rate (75 percent).

What temporary protections are at stake?

MPI estimates about 575,000 of the 13.7 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States as of mid-2023 were Caribbean nationals, led by Dominicans (37 percent), Haitians (31 percent), Cubans (15 percent), and Jamaicans (10 percent). Temporary statuses now face legal and political pressure. As of March 2025, 331,000 Haitians held Temporary Protected Status — 25 percent of all nearly 1.3 million U.S. TPS holders — after a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's effort to cancel it. The administration terminated the CHNV humanitarian parole program, which had protected more than 110,000 Cubans and 211,000 Haitians; the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed removals of some recipients to begin. As of June 2025, roughly 4,900 Caribbean immigrants held DACA, about 1 percent of all 515,600 active recipients.

How do they fare economically?

Median household income for Caribbean immigrants was $66,500 in 2024, below both immigrant households overall ($82,400) and U.S.-born households ($81,400). Jamaican-led households reported the highest incomes ($81,400); Dominican-led households the lowest ($53,400). Sixteen percent lived below the poverty line ($32,100 for a family of four), versus 14 percent of all immigrants. One-quarter held a bachelor's degree or higher. Labor-force participation stood at 67 percent.

Globally, 9.6 million Caribbean migrants lived outside their countries of birth as of mid-2024, with the United States the top destination, ahead of Spain (417,000), Canada (398,000), and Chile (209,000). Formal remittances to the region reached $20 billion in 2024 — up 158 percent since 2010 — equal to 19 percent of Haiti's GDP and 18 percent of Jamaica's. The Dominican Republic received the largest total, $11 billion.

Readers should consult USCIS and official Census Bureau data for current status requirements and eligibility rules.