WASHINGTON, DC  — Immigrant workers in Napa County’s wine and hospitality industry account for about $1.5 billion, or 11 percent, of the county’s total economic output annually, according to a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report conducted through a grant from the Napa Valley Community Foundation.

The report, Rooted in the Valley: Immigrants in Napa County’s Communities and Economy, being released Thursday at a community event in Yountville, presents a comprehensive portrait of the county’s 29,000 foreign-born residents and their deep integration into the region’s workforce, communities and economic life. Though 21 percent of Napa residents as of 2019-2023, immigrants (including in-commuters) represented 29 percent of the county’s workforce and 71 percent of its agricultural labor force.

The immigrant community’s integration runs deep. Three-quarters of immigrants in Napa County have lived in the United States for 20 years or more. And nearly half of all children in the county—47 percent—have at least one immigrant parent, a share that has remained stable since MPI last studied Napa County in 2012. One thing that has changed: The share of immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens has grown sharply, from 30 percent in the mid-2000s to 48 percent in 2023.

“Immigrants’ economic contributions, their families and their civic participation are woven into the fabric of Napa County,” said MPI Senior Policy Analyst Valerie Lacarte, the lead co-author of the study, which uses U.S. Census Bureau and economic modeling data to sketch the immigrant population and its role in the county’s life and workforce.

The report comes as Napa County confronts simultaneous pressures: an aging agricultural workforce, shifting wine demand, rising housing costs and shortages pushing workers to neighboring counties, and expanding federal immigration enforcement nationally. The number of immigrants living and working in the county has declined by 11 percent since 2006–10, even as the number of commuter workers coming in from Solano and Sonoma counties—particularly among immigrants—has grown.

Still, despite soaring home prices, 58 percent of the county’s immigrants live in owned homes, a rate that is 72 percent among naturalized citizens. Among other signs of meaningful progress in immigrant economic well-being: The median household income of immigrant families in Napa County was $108,000—higher than California’s statewide immigrant average of $99,000. The share of Latino immigrants with low incomes has declined, from 39 percent to 31 percent since MPI’s earlier study.

Yet persistent disparities remain. Immigrants in Napa County continue to earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by U.S.-born workers, even while being more likely to work full-time and year-round. About 39 percent of immigrant male workers lack a high school diploma, compared to 6 percent of U.S.-born workers. And half of all county immigrants have limited English proficiency.

Unauthorized immigrants constituted one-third of the immigrant workforce even as they were 25 percent, or about 8,400, of the county’s foreign-born residents. They were concentrated in agriculture, where they made up 27 percent of all workers.

The report uses an economic input-output model to simulate what the loss of unauthorized immigrant workers in the wine and hospitality industry, a leading sector, would mean for the broader economy. The findings are stark: eliminating those approximately 3,350 jobs from the wine and hospitality sector would reduce county gross sales by $1 billion, shrink local GDP by 3 percent and cut county and subcounty tax revenues—from property, sales and special assessments—by approximately $28 million per year. Critically, the ripple effects would cost an estimated 1,200 additional jobs held by U.S.-born and lawfully present workers.

“Napa County’s heavy reliance on immigrant labor in the wine and hospitality industry, particularly for crucial roles in vineyards, will be front of mind as communities experience increased immigration
enforcement and as legal admissions channels are narrowed,” Lacarte and fellow authors Michael Fix and Allison Rutland write.

The report suggests a number of recommendations for community leaders, including extending naturalization and legal assistance programs; expanding adult English learning, adult basic education and post-secondary credential opportunities; and examining access to local family health and related services amid increasing federal restrictions on eligibility for federally funded health and nutrition programs.

The report, being released at a Common Ground event organized by the Napa Valley Community Foundation on May 7, 2026, is available at www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigrants-napa-communities-economy.

For a look at the 2012 study, click here.