Key facts about the changing U.S. unauthorized immigrant population
The unauthorized immigrant population’s size and composition has ebbed and flowed significantly over the past 30 years.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The unauthorized immigrant population’s size and composition has ebbed and flowed significantly over the past 30 years.
There were 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. in 2017. The number of Mexican unauthorized immigrants declined since 2007.
Roughly 317,000 immigrants from 10 countries have this status after fleeing dangerous conditions at home. Learn about where these protections stand.
The number of Mexican unauthorized immigrants has fallen since its peak of 6.9 million in 2007 and was lower in 2017 than in any year since 2001.
In 2016, a third of unauthorized immigrant adults were proficient in English – up from a quarter in 2007.
Unauthorized immigrants make up a quarter of all U.S. foreign-born residents. Our new interactive offers data on unauthorized immigrants by state.
About 250,000 babies were born to unauthorized immigrant parents in the United States in 2016, the latest year for which information is available, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data about illegal immigration. This represents a 36% decrease from a peak of about 390,000 in 2007.
Lawful immigrants account for three-quarters of the foreign-born population in the U.S. – 33.8 million people out of 44.7 million people in 2015.
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.
About 3.9 million kindergarten through 12th-grade students in U.S. public and private schools in 2014 were children of unauthorized immigrants.
1615 L St. NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
USA
(+1) 202-419-4300 | Main
(+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax
(+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries
ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
© 2024 Pew Research Center