New American Economy, the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition, and Americas Society/Council of the Americas’ new report, “Immigrant Contributions to Minnesota’s Economy,” highlights the important role that Minnesota’s foreign-born population plays in the state’s economy.

Key findings of the report include:

• The overall role of immigrants in the state’s economy has resulted in meaningful GDP gains in recent years. In 2012, immigrants contributed more than $22.4 billion to the Minnesota’s GDP. That means they accounted for 7.5 percent of the total GDP in the state that year.
• Almost 40 percent of Minnesota’s Fortune 500 firms were founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. In 2014, the state was home to 18 Fortune 500 companies, placing it in the top 10 states with the most such firms in the country. Together, the list of companies founded by immigrants or their children—a group that includes 3M, Medtronic, and Hormel Foods—employ more than 264,000 people globally and bring in more than $100 billion in revenues each year.
• The purchasing power of immigrants in Minnesota totaled more than $7.7 billion in 2013 alone. This brief utilizes an updated method to calculate immigrants’ purchasing power that allows for a more detailed, and in-depth analysis of immigrant wages than was available in previous studies. This method of analyzing the income of immigrants produces a surprising finding: although long recognized as an important part of Minnesota’s economic picture, immigrants have far higher amounts of disposable income than has been reported before.
• Immigrants help sustain Minnesota’s public services through tax contributions and contributions to critical entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. In 2013, immigrants in Minnesota contributed more than $1.2 billion in state and local taxes and more than $1.5 billion to Social Security and Medicare that year.
• Immigrants accounted for nearly 29 percent of Minnesota’s population growth from 2000 to 2013. During that time, the foreign-born population grew from 260,463 people to 403,514—an increase of nearly 55 percent in a 13-year period. For comparison, that growth rate outpaced the trend in nearby Wisconsin, where 21 percent of population growth was due to immigrants, and the foreign-born population increased by a little over 41 percent during the same period.
• The foreign-born play a key role in maintaining—and increasing—housing values in Minnesota. In some parts of the state, most notably the Hennepin County area around Minneapolis, the value of the average home rose by more than $2,000 between 2008 and 2012 due solely to the arrival of immigrants. In other areas that saw an outflow of immigrants, housing values fell by more than $1,200 during that period, compounding the impact of the financial crisis.

Download the full report.

Read the press release.