This week’s graphic features data from a KFF analysis of how prevalent immigrants are in the hospital workforce. The data, from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey, show that about 1 in 6 hospital workers overall are immigrants. In some states, fewer than 5% of hospital workers are immigrants; but in several, particularly those with high immigrant populations in general, immigrants comprise a significant proportion of hospital staff. The proportion of immigrants working in U.S. hospitals is highest among physicians and surgeons and building cleaning and maintenance workers. Among all clinical workers, 13% are naturalized citizens, while 4% are noncitizens. According to the KFF analysis, most immigrant hospital workers overall (including clinical and nonclinical workers) are citizens, but about a quarter are noncitizen immigrants. The share of hospital workers who are immigrants has stayed constant since 2018.
