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DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION UNTIL
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
11:00 a.m. EDT, April 25, 2017
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2
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Unauthorized immigrants
include those who enter the
country without legal
permission and those who
overstay their legal visas.
Declines in the number of
unauthorized immigrants are
due to people who are
deported, leave voluntarily,
convert to lawful status or, in
a small number of cases, die.
As the number of Mexicans has decreased, the number of unauthorized immigrants from other
parts of the world has increased. The estimated number from countries other than Mexico
declined from 5.3 million in 2007 to 5 million in 2009, but grew after that, reaching 5.4 million in
2015 and 5.7 million in the preliminary 2016 estimate.
Central America and Asia are the second and third most common birth regions for unauthorized
immigrants in the U.S., after Mexico. From 2009 to 2015, the number of unauthorized immigrants
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3
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The Centers 2016 preliminary estimates U.S. total 11,000 11,300 -375
are based on census data from March *Each number in this chart is rounded based on a set of specified rules.
Subtracting the 2009 total from the 2015 total for any region may produce a
2016, in the last year of President Barack different result than shown in the change column because of this rounding.
Obamas second term. Because these The number in the change column is the more precise estimate of
difference.
estimates date from before President Note: Asia includes South and East Asia. Europe includes all central Asian
Donald Trump took office in January, republics of the former Soviet Union. The Middle East includes Southwest
Asia and North Africa; Africa refers to sub-Saharan Africa only. U.S. total
they do not account for the impact of any includes a residual from other nations that is not shown. Significant changes
are based on 90% confidence interval. The symbol N.S. means the
of his announced policy changes, measured change is not statistically different from zero.
including promises of expanded border Source: Pew Research Center estimates for 2009 and 2015 based on
augmented American Community Survey (IPUMS).
protection and increased actions against
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
unauthorized immigrants.
However, a more recent data source about unauthorized immigration the number of
apprehensions at the Southwest border fell in January, February and March after ticking upward
last spring and fall, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics. Meanwhile, in a
potential sign of the changing makeup of the unauthorized immigrant population, there were more
apprehensions of non-Mexicans than Mexicans in fiscal 2016 for just the second time on record
(the first was in fiscal 2014).
Despite its recent decline, the estimated unauthorized immigrant population remains more than
triple its size in 1990, when it was about 3.5 million. The unauthorized immigrant population rose
rapidly after that, peaking at 12.2 million in 2007, before falling during the Great Recession during
2007-2009 and then levelling off, as declines in unauthorized immigrant totals from Mexico and a
rise from other countries kept the total roughly in balance.
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PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Pew Research Center estimates are derived from data collected by the U.S. Census Bureaus
American Community Survey and Current Population Survey. The Current Population Survey is
used when American Community Survey data are not available. To arrive at its estimate, the
Center uses census data to estimate the size of the foreign-born population (adjusted for
undercount); subtracts the estimated number of lawful immigrants from the total; and then uses
the residual to estimate the size and characteristics of the unauthorized immigrant population.
This is called the residual method.
The 2016 estimate is considered preliminary because it is derived from the Current Population
Survey, which has a larger margin of error due to its smaller sample size (about 70,000
households in the March 2016 data used in these estimates) compared with the American
Community Survey (which had a 2015 sample size of about 1.3 million households). All other
Center estimates since 2005 are derived from the American Community Survey.
The estimates for 2013 and later include about 10% of unauthorized immigrants who have been
granted temporary protection under Obamas 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
program and the federal governments Temporary Protected Status program for immigrants
potentially affected by disease, natural disaster or conflict in their home countries.
The Center estimates that, since 2009, there have been an average of about 350,000 new
unauthorized immigrants each year added to the total, including about 100,000 Mexicans. Before
the Great Recession, Mexicans represented about half of new unauthorized immigrants.
Earlier Center research found that a rising share of unauthorized immigrants has lived in the U.S.
for a decade or more, as new illegal immigration has slowed. In 2014, 66% of unauthorized
immigrants had lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years, compared with 41% in 2005. Only 14% in
2014 had lived in the U.S. for less than five years, compared with 31% in 2005.
In a related trend, unauthorized immigrants also are increasingly likely to live with children born
in the U.S. Pew Research Center estimates that in 2014, 4 million unauthorized-immigrant adults,
or 39%, lived with their U.S.-born children, either minors or adults. In 2000, 2.1 million
unauthorized-immigrant adults, or 30%, lived with their U.S.-born children. (The total number of
unauthorized immigrants with adult or minor children born in the U.S. may well be higher, as
these figures do not count those whose children live in another household.)
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