About 967,400 adult immigrants took the oath of allegiance and became U.S. citizens this past fiscal year, according to a new report released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The record high comes as the federal government works to reduce a backlog of applications that was worsened by the pandemic.
There were only two other times recorded in U.S. history when the number of adults naturalized was greater than fiscal year 2022. In 1996, about 1,040,000 adults became U.S. citizens, and in 2008, roughly 1,046,000 adults gained citizenship, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security.
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