FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

New Unauthorized Immigration Estimates for the U.S.

The average annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005.

BY D’Vera Cohn

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Communications Department
202.419.4372
www.pewresearch.org

RECOMMENDED CITATION

Pew Research Center, September 2010, "New Unauthorized Immigration Estimates for the U.S."

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Table of contents

New Unauthorized Immigration Estimates for the U.S.

The average annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005.

The average annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005, according to a report released today by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. The estimates are based mainly on data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.

The U.S. unauthorized immigrant population declined by 8%–or about a million people–from 2007 to 2009, according to the new estimates. There were an estimated 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in March 2009, compared with 12 million in March 2007.

According to the report, the decline has been especially notable in states along the nation’s Southeast coast and in its Mountain West. By country of origin, the most marked decline has been in unauthorized immigrants from Latin American nations other than Mexico.

The new set of national estimates comes on the heels of a report released last month by the Pew Hispanic Center that provided estimates about the children of unauthorized immigrants.