Mapping Illegal Immigrants By State

U.S. President Joe Biden recently announced actions to bar immigrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally.

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti maps the number of unauthorized immigrants by state, based on 2021 estimates from the Pew Research Center based on calculations using U.S. Census Bureau data.

Undocumented Immigrants Concentrated in Certain States

The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States was estimated at around 10 million in 2021 after peaking at 12.2 million in 2007.

California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois had the largest unauthorized immigrant populations in 2021. These six states were home to 56% of the nation’s unauthorized immigrants in 2021, down from 80% in 1990.

Between 2017 and 2021, the unauthorized immigrant populations in Florida and Washington increased, while those in California and Nevada decreased.

The most common country of birth for people without legal status is Mexico. In recent years, however, there have been increases in immigrants from nearly every other region of the world—Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Asia, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa.

In addition, around 5% of U.S. workers are unauthorized immigrants.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Why Do People Immigrate to the U.S.? This visualization shows why immigrants choose to come to America.