How Large of an Impact Do Immigrants Have on Pittsburgh’s Regional Economy?
A mural in Pittsburgh's Strip District Nick Amoscato / Flickr via CC BY 2.0
New research “is a great reminder of how vital the growing immigrant and Latino community is to our region’s future success and stability,” according to Mayor Bill Peduto.
Immigrants living in and around Pittsburgh have had a significant, positive effect on the regional economy, according to new research that top elected officials there highlighted Tuesday.
According to a research brief from the Partnership for a New American Economy, immigrants contributed in 2014 an estimated $6.8 billion, or roughly 7.5 percent, to the $89.6 billion gross domestic product in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located.
Foreign-born residents, particularly those from countries in Asia, added considerably to the region’s spending power and tax revenues as well, the brief noted.
“This report shows, again, what we’ve known in our region for quite some time—that immigrants and foreign-born residents play an important part in our region’s economy,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said in a statement Tuesday.
Allegheny County has 62,881 foreign-born residents, according to the brief. That figure is roughly 5 percent of the 730 square-mile jurisdiction’s total population, which the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimate pegs at about 1.2 million.
About 6 percent of the employed labor force and 8.6 percent of the self-employed population in the county, during 2014, was made up of immigrants, the brief says.
It also points out that the foreign-born population in Allegheny County wielded an estimated $1.8 billion in spending power in 2014, or roughly 6.3 percent of the countywide total for that year, with Asian immigrants contributing about $912 million of this amount.
In terms of tax revenue, the county’s foreign-born population paid $217 million in state and local taxes during 2014, the brief estimates. Allegheny’s Asian immigrant population paid about 49 percent of that amount, and Latino immigrants roughly 6 percent.
“Pittsburgh was built by a skilled, hardworking and thriving immigrant community,” said Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto in a statement Tuesday. “This report is a great reminder of how vital the growing immigrant and Latino community is to our region’s future success and stability.”
The Partnership for a New American Economy brings together business leaders and mayors to make a an economic case for reforming the nation’s immigration system.
Among the principles the organization backs are securing the borders of the United States, and establishing a path toward a legal status for undocumented immigrants now living in the country.
A full copy of the research brief, “Advancing the Pittsburgh Region”, can be found here.
Bill Lucia is a Reporter for Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Washington, D.C. Photo by Flickr user Nick Amoscato via CC BY 2.0.
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