Georgia ranks second in the country for immigrants in 2026, according to a new report from SmileHub, a nonprofit organization. Virginia ranked first.
What’s Happening: SmileHub compared all 50 states across 16 metrics to produce its Best States for Immigrants in 2026 ranking. Georgia scored 59.34 out of 100. Virginia topped the list with a score of 60.98.
What’s Important: Several individual category scores drove Georgia’s high overall ranking:
- 3rd for fewest hate crime incidents per capita
- 4th for the smallest income gap between immigrants and non-immigrants
- 9th for share of employed foreign-born residents
- 10th for cost of living
- 16th for share of immigrants in the population
- 20th for community support charities per capita
How This Affects Real People: More than 53 million immigrants live and work in the United States. SmileHub says the ranking is designed to help immigrants identify which states offer better conditions for living and working.
The Path Forward: SmileHub also released a companion list of Best Charities for Community Support alongside the state rankings.
Georgia’s high ranking comes as immigration enforcement has been a flashpoint across the state. Georgia saw the fourth most ICE raids in the country in 2025, with more than 8,000 people taken into custody.
