Figure A

The unauthorized immigrant population declined during the Great Recession and remained steady until increasing in 2022: Estimates of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, 2007–2023

MPI Pew CMS DHS
2007 12.2 12.2 11.8
2008 11.1 11.7 12 11.6
2009 10.7 11.3 10.8
2010 10.5 11.4 11.7 11.6
2011 10.5 11.5 11.3 11.5
2012 10.5 11.2 11 11.4
2013 10.6 11.2 11 11.2
2014 10.7 11.1 11 11.5
2015 10.9 11 11 11.4
2016 10.9 10.7 10.8 11.8
2017 10.9 10.5 10.6 11.4
2018 10.8 10.5 10.6 11.6
2019 10.7 10.2 10.4 11.1
2020 11.1 10.1 10.5
2021 11.9 10.5 10.3
2022 12.8 11 10.9 11
2023 13.7 11.7
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Economic Policy Institute

Source: Jennifer Van Hook, Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, and Julia Gelatt, The Unauthorized Immigrant Population Expands amid Record U.S.-Mexico Border Arrivals, Migration Policy Institute, February 2025; Robert Warren, US Undocumented Population Increased to 11.7 Million in July 2023: Provisional CMS Estimates Derived from CPS Data, Center for Migration Studies, September 5, 2024; Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Julia Gelatt, and Jennifer Van Hook, “Diverse Flows Drive Increase in U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population,” Commentaries, Migration Policy Institute, July 2024; Jennifer Van Hook, Julia Gelatt, and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, “A Turning Point for the Unauthorized Immigrant Population in the United States,” Commentaries, Migration Policy Institute, September 2023; Robert Warren, “In 2019, the US Undocumented Population Continued a Decade-Long Decline and the Foreign-Born Population Neared Zero Growth,” Journal on Migration and Human Security 9, no. 1 (March 1, 2021): 31–43; Robert Warren, After a Decade of Decline, the US Undocumented Population Increased by 650,000 in 2022, Center for Migration Studies, January 28, 2024; Jeffrey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad, “What We Know About Unauthorized Immigrants Living in the U.S.,” Pew Research Center, July 22, 2024; Pew Research Center, “Unauthorized Immigrant Population Trends for States, Birth Countries, and Regions," June 12, 2019; Bryan Baker, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2015–January 2018, DHS, Office of Immigration Statistics, January 2021; Bryan Baker, Population Estimates: Illegal Alien Population Residing in the United States: January 2015, DHS Office of Immigration Statistics, December 2018; Bryan Baker and Robert Warren, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2018–January 2022, DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics, April 2024.

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