Charted: Unauthorized Immigrants in the U.S., by Country of Origin

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June 22, 2024 Article/Editing: Graphics/Design:

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Visualizing Unauthorized Immigrants in the U.S.

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More than any other nation, the U.S. is home to over 46 million immigrants. Of these, over 11 million are unauthorized immigrants.

This graphic visualizes the countries of origin for the unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S., based on 2021 estimates from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), published in September 2023. Because these estimates are based on 2021 figures, they don’t capture the record number of border encounters witnessed in 2022 and 2023.

Mexico’s Overall Share is Declining

According to the MPI, Mexico accounted for 7.7 million unauthorized immigrants in 2008. This suggests a 32% decline to the latest estimate of 5.2 million.

CountryRegionUnauthorized Immigrants 🇲🇽 MexicoNorth America5,203,000 🇬🇹 GuatemalaNorth America780,000 🇸🇻 El SalvadorNorth America751,000 🇭🇳 HondurasNorth America564,000 🇮🇳 IndiaAsia400,000 🇵🇭 PhilippinesAsia309,000 🇻🇪 VenezuelaSouth America251,000 🇨🇳 ChinaAsia241,000 🇨🇴 ColombiaSouth America201,000 🇧🇷 BrazilSouth America195,000 🌍 Rest of World2,322,000 Total11,217,000

Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras follow Mexico. According to the Migration Policy Institute, immigration from these three countries has been the most significant contributor to the growth of the Central American-born population in the U.S. since 1980. Roughly 86% of Central Americans in the United States in 2021 were born in one of these three countries.

India comes in fifth. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an unprecedented number of undocumented Indian immigrants have been crossing U.S. borders on foot in recent years.

Among the factors for the increase in Indian immigration to the U.S. are the overall growth in global migration since the pandemic, oppression of minority communities in India, and extreme visa backlogs.

Learn more about unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. by our breakdown by U.S. state found here.

Mapped: Unauthorized Immigrants by State

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June 6, 2024

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Mapped: Unauthorized Immigrants by State

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

U.S. President Joe Biden recently announced actions to bar immigrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally.

In this graphic, we map the number of unauthorized immigrants by state, based on 2021 estimates from the Pew Research Center based on calculations using U.S. Census Bureau data.

Undocumented Immigrants Concentrated in Certain States

The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States was estimated at around 10 million in 2021 after peaking at 12.2 million in 2007.

California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois had the largest unauthorized immigrant populations in 2021. These six states were home to 56% of the nation’s unauthorized immigrants in 2021, down from 80% in 1990.

StateUnauthorized Immigrants California1.9M Texas1.6M Florida900K New York600K New Jersey450K Illinois400K Georgia350K North Carolina325K Massachusetts300K Washington300K Maryland275K Virginia275K Arizona250K Pennsylvania220K Nevada190K Colorado160K Connecticut140K Tennessee140K Michigan120K Ohio120K Oregon120K Indiana110K South Carolina95K Utah95K Minnesota90K Oklahoma85K Wisconsin80K Kansas75K Arkansas70K Louisiana70K Missouri65K Alabama60K Kentucky55K New Mexico55K Iowa45K Nebraska45K Hawaii40K Rhode Island40K Idaho35K Delaware30K District of Columbia25K Mississippi20K New Hampshire15K South Dakota10K Alaska5K Maine5K North Dakota5K Montana5K Vermont5K West Virginia5K Wyoming5K Total10.5M

Between 2017 and 2021, the unauthorized immigrant populations in Florida and Washington increased, while those in California and Nevada decreased.

The most common country of birth for people without legal status is Mexico. In recent years, however, there have been increases in immigrants from nearly

Mapped: U.S. Immigrants by Region

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14 seconds ago

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May 9, 2024 Article/Editing:

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Breaking Down America’s Immigrant Population

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The United States is home to more immigrants than any other nation, surpassing the combined totals of the next four countries: Germany, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

To add context to this impressive fact, we’ve illustrated the regions from which U.S. immigrants originated. “Immigrants” in this context refers to individuals who are residing in the United States but were not U.S. citizens at birth.

These statistics were sourced from the Migration Policy Institute, which analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey (ACS).

U.S. Immigrants by Region

From this graphic, we can see that Asia and Latin America emerge as the primary sources of immigration, collectively accounting for 81% of America’s 46.2 million immigrants.

Region# of Immigrants% of Total Europe4,728,94810 Asia14,349,08031 Africa2,752,9656 Oceania288,5601 Northern America828,7022 Latin America23,233,83450 Total46,182,089100

Latin America alone contributes half of the immigrant population. Mexico stands out as the largest contributor to U.S. immigration, with 10.7 million immigrants, attributable to its geographical proximity and historical ties.

Economic factors, including wage disparity and employment opportunities, drive many Mexicans to seek better prospects north of the border.

From Asia, the two largest country sources are China (2.2 million) and India (2.8 million).

Learn More About U.S. Immigration From Visual Capitalist

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Why Do People Immigrate to the U.S.? This visualization shows the different reasons why immigrants chose to come to America in 2021.