Was there ever a time in US history where the majority of citizens were immigrants instead of native born citizens?
I’m sure right at the creation of the country (ie the end of the Revolutionary War), the immigrants (mostly English, I presume) outnumbered the colonists who had been born… but there’s a very good chance I’m wrong.
A time during US history? No. Of course, there must have been a period when this was true during the colonial days, but by the time of the Revolution the vast majority were native born.
The US Census has only kept track of this since 1850, but here are the numbers:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab01.html
Well, I would count all those who were in the country at the time of getting independence as natives. When the Constitution was adopted all residents became citizens of the us. The population then is given in thiscolonial population estimates as about 2.8 million.
This site givesbirthrates in the late 18th century as “… 40 to 50 live births per 1000 population.” The lower number would result in about 112000 live births/year.
Considering the difficulty of transporting large numbers of people to the US at that time and birth rates and all, I’d have to say “no” to your question.