Immigrants help sustain the Philadelphia region’s economy as workers, business owners, homeowners, consumers, and neighbors. Across Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, their contributions extend well beyond filling jobs: They support local businesses, expand the tax base, and connect the region to skills and markets around the world.
Nearly one in five businesses with paid employees in the five-county region is immigrant-owned. Immigrant-headed households generate almost $30 billion in annual income and retain more than $20 billion in spending power after taxes. Their collective home equity approaches $60 billion, giving families a stake in their communities while supporting the property-tax base that pays for schools and other services.
Education and workforce needs are another part of the picture. Foreign-born residents make up 16 percent of Pennsylvania’s workers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, nearly twice their share of the state’s population. At the same time, immigrants work across a wide range of occupations and education levels. Regional averages can hide important differences: Immigrant households in Philadelphia generally have lower incomes than native-born households, while the pattern is often reversed in surrounding counties.
Welcoming and supporting immigrant talent can strengthen the connections among education, employment, entrepreneurship, and community growth. County comparisons and profiles show where those connections are already visible and where needs differ. These descriptive data document economic contributions; they do not isolate how much of every change was caused by immigration. The central message is that newcomers’ opportunities and the region’s prosperity are closely connected.