Every American house is an immigration story before the first wall goes up, so we mapped who builds America’s houses: the construction workers by state and where they were born. The country has 11,129,504 construction workers and 25.5 percent were born abroad, a share that hit a record 26.4 percent in the newest single-year data, just as immigration slows.
America’s construction workforce is 11,129,504 strong, about 1 in 14 of all workers.
One in four construction workers was born outside the US, and the newest single-year reading is a record.
The state spread is enormous: 41.1 percent of California’s construction workforce is foreign-born against 2.0 percent of West Virginia’s.
In major metros, industry research puts the foreign-born share of the hands-on trades near half, with majorities among drywallers, roofers, and painters.
Associated Builders and Contractors, the commercial-construction group, says the industry needs 349,000 net new workers this year, while net immigration falls.
The map, the full state table, and the four numbers everyone confuses are below.
Which states rely most on immigrant construction labor?
California, where 41.1 percent of construction workers were born abroad, then Texas at 39.4, New Jersey at 38.7, Florida at 38.4, and New York at 36.3. In the states that build the most, roughly two of every five people on the site are immigrants.
The other end of the list is a different industry entirely. West Virginia’s construction workforce is 2.0 percent foreign-born, Vermont’s and Montana’s 2.1, Maine’s 2.8: a twentyfold spread the national average hides completely.
Map: foreign-born share of each state’s construction workforce, ranked, darkest = highest (California, 41.1%). Census ACS five-year data.Share of construction workers born outside the US, from 2.0% in West Virginia to 41.1% in California.
Source: Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table S0501.
The table below shows every state plus DC: how many people work in construction, what share of all jobs that is, and how many of those workers were born abroad. Sort it however you want.
Construction workers by state: all 50 states plus DC, ranked by the foreign-born share of the construction workforce (Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table S0501; industry definition, everyone from laborers to office staff). Click a header to sort.
Rank
State
Construction workers
% of all jobs
Foreign-born workers
Foreign-born share
1
California
1,237,031
6.6%
509,008
41.1%
2
Texas
1,226,646
8.5%
483,156
39.4%
3
New Jersey
285,926
6.1%
110,637
38.7%
4
Florida
859,770
8.2%
329,955
38.4%
5
New York
542,845
5.7%
196,930
36.3%
6
Nevada
115,478
7.7%
41,191
35.7%
7
Maryland
230,056
7.3%
79,486
34.6%
8
District of Columbia
8,625
2.3%
2,814
32.6%
9
Connecticut
112,842
6.1%
31,765
28.2%
10
Georgia
364,970
7.0%
102,377
28.1%
11
North Carolina
376,287
7.4%
102,749
27.3%
12
Massachusetts
230,011
6.2%
61,639
26.8%
13
Virginia
278,051
6.5%
73,008
26.3%
14
Arizona
266,417
7.8%
69,416
26.1%
15
Illinois
338,243
5.4%
86,067
25.4%
16
New Mexico
69,747
7.6%
15,791
22.6%
17
Rhode Island
35,829
6.4%
7,763
21.7%
18
Colorado
246,861
8.0%
51,937
21.0%
19
Utah
138,899
8.1%
27,740
20.0%
20
Delaware
34,647
7.1%
6,847
19.8%
21
Oklahoma
135,103
7.4%
26,654
19.7%
22
Arkansas
97,938
7.3%
18,280
18.7%
23
Tennessee
238,746
7.1%
44,301
18.6%
24
Washington
271,195
7.1%
50,429
18.6%
25
South Carolina
175,337
7.2%
32,229
18.4%
26
Kansas
93,448
6.4%
16,467
17.6%
27
Louisiana
169,092
8.4%
29,189
17.3%
28
Hawaii
49,371
7.4%
7,812
15.8%
29
Nebraska
72,752
7.1%
11,211
15.4%
30
Oregon
140,519
6.8%
21,281
15.1%
31
Alabama
157,957
7.0%
21,134
13.4%
32
Indiana
219,353
6.6%
23,753
10.8%
33
Idaho
85,491
9.3%
9,185
10.7%
34
Iowa
113,101
6.9%
10,144
9.0%
35
Wyoming
24,541
8.5%
2,108
8.6%
36
Pennsylvania
379,973
6.0%
32,294
8.5%
37
Kentucky
128,980
6.3%
10,745
8.3%
38
Mississippi
85,370
6.8%
7,053
8.3%
39
Michigan
279,197
5.9%
22,623
8.1%
40
Minnesota
191,504
6.4%
14,543
7.6%
41
Missouri
203,679
6.8%
12,612
6.2%
42
New Hampshire
53,990
7.2%
3,371
6.2%
43
Ohio
342,564
6.0%
21,368
6.2%
44
Wisconsin
190,956
6.3%
10,415
5.5%
45
Alaska
24,027
7.1%
1,230
5.1%
46
South Dakota
35,519
7.7%
1,775
5.0%
47
North Dakota
28,844
7.1%
1,074
3.7%
48
Maine
53,326
7.7%
1,519
2.8%
49
Montana
50,413
9.2%
1,058
2.1%
50
Vermont
26,829
7.9%
566
2.1%
51
West Virginia
49,120
6.6%
976
2.0%
–
USA
11,129,504
6.9%
2,841,641
25.5%
Source: Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table S0501.
Is the foreign-born share really at a record?
Yes. It was 23.4 percent in 2010, 24.8 in 2015, 24.5 in 2019, and 26.4 in the newest single-year data, the highest ever measured. In raw numbers that’s 2,015,862 foreign-born construction workers grown to 3,042,557, up about a million in fourteen years.
The timing is the story. That record arrives exactly as net immigration slows sharply, per widely reported projections, and as Associated Builders and Contractors says the industry needs 349,000 net new workers this year. The workforce that builds houses is aging out faster than it’s being replaced, and the replacement pipeline just narrowed.
Foreign-born share of the US construction workforce, single-year Census editions. The newest reading is the highest ever measured.
201023.4%
201524.8%
201924.5%
202426.4%
Source: Census ACS 1-year editions, table S0501.
One workforce, four different numbers
You’ll see 26 percent, 30 percent, 54 percent, and 60 percent quoted for the same phenomenon, and all four are real. About 26 percent is the foreign-born share of the whole construction workforce, ours and the National Association of Home Builders’. Around 30 percent is the same idea on a broader industry-employment count.
The bigger numbers are narrower slices. Industry research puts the foreign-born share of the hands-on trades near 54 percent across major metros, and above half in single trades like drywall installation, roofing, and painting nationally. Same country, four denominators.
Two construction industries, one country.
California41.1% of construction workers born abroad; Texas, New Jersey, Florida, and New York all near 2 in 5the building belt
West Virginia2.0% foreign-born, with Vermont and Montana at 2.1%a twentyfold gap
Source: Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table S0501.
Methodology: where these numbers come from
State figures come from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year estimates, the nativity profile table S0501: the civilian employed population, the share working in construction, and both figures for foreign-born workers, combined into the foreign-born share of each state’s construction workforce. The trend uses the same table’s single-year editions, where the newest year’s 26.4 percent is the record the industry press cites. Five-year and single-year figures are labeled and never mixed.
Construction here means the construction industry, everyone from laborers to office staff; the higher trades-level shares are the National Association of Home Builders’ and Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ occupation-level research, quoted as theirs. Reports also find construction employs the largest share of immigrant workers of any industry, which counts birthplace, not legal status; we make no estimates of our own on legal status. For who owns the houses this workforce builds, our US housing statistics page has the other half of the story.
State table: Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table S0501 (industry = construction, NAICS 23)
Trend: ACS 1-year editions 2010, 2015, 2019, 2024 (the record year)
Foreign-born share derived as (foreign-born employed × their construction share) ÷ (all employed × overall construction share)
Publisher figures (trades shares, the industry superlative, the workforce gap, the undocumented count): NAHB, JCHS, USAFacts, ABC and published reports, each named where it is used
The bottom line
America’s houses are built by 11,129,504 people, and one in four of them was born somewhere else, rising to two in five in the states doing the most building. That share just hit a record at the exact moment the pipeline behind it narrowed.
Whatever happens to immigration policy happens to homebuilding next. The map above is where it happens first.
Frequently asked questions
Are most construction workers immigrants?
No: about 1 in 4 US construction workers was born abroad, 25.5 percent in the newest five-year Census data. But the share reaches roughly 2 in 5 in California, Texas, New Jersey, Florida, and New York, and industry research finds majorities in specific trades like drywall installation and roofing. Nationally, most construction workers are US-born.
What percentage of construction workers are immigrants?
25.5 percent of the US construction workforce was born outside the country per the newest five-year Census data, and the newest single-year reading is a record 26.4 percent. That’s 2,841,641 foreign-born workers in the five-year count. The share has climbed from 23.4 percent since 2010.
How many construction workers does the US need?
Associated Builders and Contractors, the commercial-construction trade group, says the industry needs 349,000 net new workers this year, and a widely cited industry forecast puts the need near 500,000; both are industry estimates, not government counts. The workforce currently stands at 11,129,504. Retirements and slowing immigration drive the gap.
Which industry employs the most undocumented immigrants?
We don’t rank industries on legal status, because the Census data behind this page measures birthplace, not documentation. Published reports do put roughly 1.6 million undocumented workers in US construction, from analyses of Census data and labor surveys. On birthplace, construction leads every industry: an estimated 29.8 percent of its workers were born abroad.
Sources
US Census Bureau. “American Community Survey, Table S0501: Selected Characteristics of the Native and Foreign-Born Populations (2020-2024 5-Year and 1-Year Editions).” 2025. data.census.gov/table/ACSST5Y2024.S0501
Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.
He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.
If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.
