Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer, on the research techniques used to derive the unauthorized immigrant population estimate in the U.S. and the challenges involved.
In 2016, the 20 U.S. metro areas with the most unauthorized immigrants were home to 6.5 million of them, or 61% of the estimated total.
As the Mexican share of the total declined, the unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S. in 2015 was smaller than when the Great Recession ended.
The increase in the potential labor force will slow markedly as Baby Boomers retire. Immigrants will play the primary role in future growth of the working-age population.
There were 8 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. working or looking for work in 2014, making up 5% of the civilian labor force.
About 275,000 babies were born to unauthorized-immigrant parents in 2014, a decline from 330,000 in 2009.
The unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S. – 11.1 million in 2014 – has remained essentially stable since 2009 after nearly two decades of changes.
The estimated total – 11.1 million in 2014 – has steadied since the end of the recession as the number declined from Mexico but grew from other countries.
Out of 45 million U.S. arrivals by air and sea whose tourist or business visas expired in fiscal 2015, the agency estimates that about 416,500 people were still in the country this year.
Copyright 2024 Pew Research Center
