Sioux City Journal: Report: Immigration fuels metro Sioux City’s recent population growth

Foreign-born newcomers accounted for more than 75 percent of metro Sioux City’s population growth between 2010 and 2015, a new report shows.

The number of immigrants in the metro area were estimated at 14,817 in 2015, or 8.8 percent of the combined population of 169,069 for Plymouth and Woodbury counties in Iowa, Dakota and Dixon counties in Nebraska and Union County in South Dakota.

New American Economy, a national immigration policy coalition, conducted the research and shared the findings at a news conference Thursday.

“Our community itself isn’t growing without the newcomers,” said Erica DeLeon, director of One Siouxland, a community group affiliated with the Siouxland Foundation. “I don’t think we would have Seaboard coming in, and Tyson and BPI expanding and Wells Blue Bunny doing so well and expanding, if it weren’t for newcomers.”

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