Breaking Down America’s 11.2M Unauthorized Immigrants

What We’re Showing

This graphic visualizes the country of origin for the unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S., based on 2021 estimates from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) which were published Sept 2023.

Mexico’s Overall Share is Declining

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

Important Considerations

These estimates are based on 2021 figures, so they don’t capture the potential impact of the record number of border encounters witnessed in 2022 and 2023. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, December 2023 saw more migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border than any other month on record.