U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reached a Record 14 Million in 2023

Preliminary data indicates continued growth into 2024 and a decrease in 2025

By Jeffrey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad

The number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States reached an all-time high of 14 million in 2023 after two consecutive years of record growth, according to a new Pew Research Center estimate. The increase of 3.5 million in two years is the biggest on record. Data from 2023 is the most recent available for developing a comprehensive and detailed estimate.

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PLEASE NOTE: The label “unauthorized immigrants” captures a complex array of statuses, including immigrants who entered the U.S. legally.

While the label is not perfect, it groups together immigrants living in the country with impermanent, precarious statuses.

The term has been used for decades by researchers who develop estimates of the population and is generally used in this report.

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Changes to the unauthorized immigrant population, 2024-25

Through early 2024, the overall unauthorized immigrant population continued to grow at a record pace, according to a Center review of preliminary and incomplete data sources. After mid-2024, policy decisions spanning the Biden and Trump administrations again changed this population. Growth slowed considerably in the last half of 2024 after the Biden administration stopped accepting asylum applications at the border and paused parole programs.

In 2025, the unauthorized immigrant population has probably started to decline, due in part to increased deportations and reduced protections under the Trump administration.

As of mid-2025, the unauthorized immigrant population likely remains above 2023 levels. Still, we won’t know the full impact of these policy shifts until more complete data becomes available.

Learn more about how the unauthorized immigrant population may have changed in 2024-25, according to preliminary, incomplete data.

Overview of this report

This report explores the dynamics shaping the population of immigrants living in the U.S. without full lawful status. It provides a complete estimate and profile for the unauthorized immigrant population in 2023 based on the best data currently available. The report also provides a look at how the population has since changed, sketching out trends based on incomplete data from 2024 and the first half of 2025 – though complete estimates are not yet possible due to these limitations.

The new estimates for 2023 (and revised estimates for 2022) are based on Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data from the American Community Survey (ACS), the most recent data available for a fully detailed estimate of unauthorized immigration. The survey data for these two years has been supplemented to take into account recent Census Bureau revisions of their data on the magnitude of immigration to the U.S.

Read “How we did this” for more.. .