LOS ANGELES—Immigrants' share of California's population has declined for the third straight year after a half century of growth, with the economic downturn and increased border enforcement discouraging fresh immigration to the state, according to a University of Southern California study released Wednesday.

California's foreign-born population—including both legal and illegal immigrants—was estimated at 26.6 percent this year, down from a peak of 27.4 percent in 2007, the study's authors determined based on recently published federal data.

The study supplied only percentages, not raw population numbers. But applied to U.S. Census Bureau data, those percentages show the number of foreign-born residents largely holding steady at around 9.9 million, while the state's total population increased from 36.6 million to 37.2 million.

The dip reversed an increase in the proportion of foreign-born residents that began in 1965, when federal reforms lifted some restrictions on immigration, said USC urban planning and demography professor Dowell Myers, one of the study's lead authors.







(posted by Tiffany Perales)