Some 12.6 million foreigners legally resided in the United States last year, a figure that has remained stable in recent years, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. As of January 2010, there were 12,630,000 legal permanent residents, including people granted lawful permanent residence, "green card" recipients, but not those who had become US citizens.
Among the legal residents, an estimated 8.1 million were eligible for naturalisation, DHS said. Some 12.5 million people were legal residents in 2009, compared to 12.6 million in 2008.