Nevada’s source of immigrants has changed over time — MAP

Nevada can be known as one of the largest melting pots in the United States, thanks largely in part to over 500,000 foreign immigrants entering the state since 2009, according to studies from the U.S Census Bureau and the Pew Research Center.

With about 28 percent of the Silver State’s population classifying as Hispanic or Latino, Clark County is one of just 78 counties across the country to turn “majority-minority” from 2000 to 2013, the Pew Research Center said.

But the majority of Nevada’s immigrants haven’t always come from Latin America. In fact, until 1980, the majority of Silver State immigrants came from Asia and Europe, according to a new Pew study released last week.

The study, released on Oct. 7, said the first immigrants to Nevada were mostly from Ireland, just after the territory became a state in 1864. A 2012 UNLV study, citing the 1870 census, suggests a Chilean population also called the new state home.

Before the population peaked at nearly 25,000 in the 1870s in Virginia City, residents included Irish, German, Cornish, Australian, Moroccan and French Canadian immigrants, according to Online Nevada.

Over 44.2 of Nevada’s population in 1870 was foreign-born, the UNLV study said, the highest figure of any state at the time and over three times the national percentage of immigrants.

By 1880, most of Nevada’s immigrants came from China, according to the Pew study. The Silver State was one of five westernmost United States to receive a majority Chinese immigrant population at the time, thanks to continued interest in mining, sparked by the 1849 California Gold Rush.

Many of the mining towns in Nevada were abandoned within the next three decades, as some wealthy immigrants returned home to their native countries and others moved on to better prospects.

Europeans accounted for the majority of Nevada’s immigrants at the turn of the century and for the first half of the 1900s, the study said. English immigrants led the way in 1900, but the next 50 years were dominated by Italian immigrants seeking both political stability and wealth away from their home country, the study and a report from the Library of Congress said.

In 1960 and 1970, Canadians were the highest recorded immigrant population to the Silver State and since 1980, the majority of the Nevada’s immigrants have come from Mexico.

Among other popular countries, according to the UNLV study include the Phillipines, El Salvador and Cuba.

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4593. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj