As the new year gets through its first month, immigration reform continues to be a hot topic issue across the United States.

Prior to the State of the Union address by President Donald Trump, personal-finance website WalletHub issued their 2018 Economic Impact of Immigration by State to showcase the amount of economic production immigrants provide in the county.

Diana Popa, communications manager with WalletHub, told the Elizabethton Star that the data calculated span across 50 states and the District of Columbia across 19 key metrics, ranging from median household income of foreign-born population to jobs created by immigrant-owned businesses.

According to the report, immigrants have the eighth smallest impact in Tennessee compared to other states and the District of Columbia.

Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst, stated the conclusion came due to a variety of reasons.

“In the Work Visas metric, for instance, the state ranked 40th at just 260 per capita,” Gonzalez said Tuesday. “The median household income of foreign-born population (39th) is under $43,000 per year.

“Less than 2 percent of total jobs are generated by immigrant-owned business (42). Lastly, the share of second-generation immigrant households is below 3 percent, ranking 45th in this specific metric.”

Other rankings for the state in the report include:

• 32nd — Net difference between state & local revenues and expenditures per immigrant

• 35th — Percentage of foreign-born STEM workers out of total STEM workers

• 26th — Percentage of foreign-born population aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher

• 33rd — Percentage of Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants or their children

• 35th — Percentage of jobs created by presence of international students out of total jobs

WalletHub used a variety of sources to calculate the final totals from different demographics, including the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor and Partnership for a New American Economy.

During calculations, different categories receive points when going through information. Categories included International Students, Brain Gain & Innovators, Socioeconomic Contribution and Immigrant Workforce.

Visit WalletHub.com to view the entire report.