ST. LOUIS — The region led the nation's largest metro areas in growing its immigrant population last year with the biggest one-year increase locally on record, according to new census data.

The growth in the region's foreign-born population appeared to be the largest here since 1850, said Ness Sandoval, a St. Louis University sociology professor who studies demographics.

"This is a historic milestone," Sandoval said. "To see us go that far in one year is a promising sign."

Civic leaders were quick to welcome the figures Monday as a sign that years of focused efforts to draw immigrants to the region, in a bid to help reverse decades of population decline, were working.

“These numbers show that the focused and intentional work taking place to make our metro a destination for immigrants is paying major dividends,” said Jason Hall, CEO Greater St. Louis Inc., the region's main business lobby. "But so much work is still to be done, and we must strengthen our support for them to make sure that this growth is sustained for years to come."

The St. Louis metropolitan area added more than 30,000 foreign-born residents from 2022 through 2023, a roughly 23% increase from year to year, the biggest one-year percentage increase in the region on record and the highest among the country's top 30 metro areas.

The region also saw a large increase in its Latino and Hispanic population, which grew by about 14,000 people, a 14% bump, the fourth-largest percentage increase among the country's top 30 metro areas. That category includes Americans and foreign-born residents.

Civic leaders attributed the increase in the immigrant population to initiatives by organizations like the International Institute and the St. Louis Mosaic Project to attract immigrants to the St. Louis region, inspired in part by the success of a wave of Bosnian immigrants and refugees in the 1990s.

The Institute, partnering with Greater St. Louis and local philanthropists, has raised private donations to fund programs meant to recruit from two large waves of immigration in recent years, from Afghanistan and Latin countries. The Afghan support program welcomed more than than 1,300 refugees to the region since the U.S. military withdrawal from the country in 2021 with programs including grants for entrepreneurs, a community center and a newspaper published in Afghan languages.

The Latino outreach program, launched last year, has also recruited people who immigrated to the U.S. under a “humanitarian parole” program limited to Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti. They were offered housing grants, English language classes, job training and job placement with unions under a Missouri AFL-CIO coalition.

The Mosaic Project, a regional initiative within the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership and the World Trade Center St. Louis founded in 2012, has funded studies and promoted initiatives meant to help draw more immigrants into the workforce to boost the region's economy. Executive Director Betsy Cohen said the group wants to make St. Louis the fastest-growing metro region for immigrants by 2025.

And St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones last year created the Office of New Americans to streamline resources meant to help immigrants settle in the city. She appointed Gilberto Pinela, former communications manager for the Cortex Innovation Community, to lead the office.

Jones celebrated the growth in immigration on Monday at a ceremony proclaiming Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 as "Hispanic Heritage Month." She noted in particular the success of Hispanic civic groups, plus restaurants and entrepreneurs in the Cherokee Street business district.

"Our city’s strength is in our diversity and the communities that we create when we open our arms to new Americans," Jones said in a statement. "It’s so obvious in many parts of St. Louis, and perhaps most of all along Cherokee Street, what Hispanic Americans do for our city’s culture, economy and community."

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said the region's growth in immigration was a "great time to stop and celebrate."

"New Americans are the path to a more vibrant economy, bolstering our population and our ability to compete with other growing regions across the U.S," Page said in a statement.

The released census data did not break down the population figures by residence, age, level of education or other factors. A more detailed census report is expected to be released next month.

While the increase should be celebrated, Sandoval said, the St. Louis area still lags behind its peers in the overall percentage of its foreign-born population. The Charlotte, North Carolina, metro area or example, has a foreign-born population of about 329,000 — about 12% of its 2.8 million population. The St. Louis area's foreign-born population is about 159,710 people.

And the St. Louis area is still experiencing overall population decline, slipping to just under 2.8 million people as of July 1, 2023 and settling into 23rd place among the nation’s top metros.

"This is one year of data, and we should celebrate it," Sandoval said, about the growth in immigrant population. "But we need to put together five to 10 years of data like this to really turn this region around."

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