About 725,000 Indians living illegally in the US made up the third largest group after Mexico and El Salvador as the unauthorized immigrant population reached 10.5 million in 2021, according to new Pew Research Center estimates.
Indians represented over 7% of the nation’s 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants which in turn made up about 3% of the total US population and 22% of the foreign-born population. These shares were among the lowest since the 1990s.
After Mexico (4.1 million in 2021) the countries of origin with the largest unauthorized immigrant populations in the US in 2021 were: El Salvador (800,000); India (725,000); Guatemala(700,000); and Honduras (525,000).
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India, Guatemala and Honduras all saw increases from 2017, according to Pew estimates.
There was a modest increase in the unauthorized immigrant population in 2021 over 2019 but nearly identical to 2017, according to the report.
The origin countries for unauthorized immigrants have changed since the population peaked in 2007, before the Great Recession slowed immigration.
The number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico living in the US was the lowest since the 1990s. Mexico accounted for 39% of the nation’s unauthorized immigrants in 2021, by far the smallest share on record.
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The total number of unauthorized immigrants in the US from countries other than Mexico has grown rapidly, according to the report. In 2021, this population was 6.4 million, up by 900,000 from 2017.
Almost every region in the world had a notable increase in the number of unauthorized immigrants in the US from 2007 to 2021. The largest increases were from Central America (240,000) and South and East Asia (180,000). Between 2007 and 2021, the unauthorized immigrant population decreased by 1.75 million, or 14%.
Meanwhile, the lawful immigrant population grew by more than 8 million, a 29% increase, and the number of naturalized US citizens grew by 49%. In 2021, naturalized citizens accounted for about half (49%) of all immigrants in the country, according to Pew.
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The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the US in 2021 remained below its peak of 12.2 million in 2007. It was about the same size as in 2004 and lower than every year from 2005 to 2015.
The most common country of birth for unauthorized immigrants is Mexico. However, the population of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico dropped by 900,000 from 2017 to 2021, to 4.1 million.
There were increases in unauthorized immigrants from nearly every other region of the world – Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Asia, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
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Among US states, only Florida and Washington saw increases to their unauthorized immigrant populations, while California and Nevada saw decreases. In all other states, unauthorized immigrant populations were unchanged.
About 4.6% of US workers in 2021 were unauthorized immigrants, virtually identical to the share in 2017.
US foreign-born population was 14.1% of the nation’s population in 2021. That was very slightly higher than in the last five years but below the record high of 14.8% in 1890.
The share of unauthorized immigrants in the US workforce was slightly less than 5% in 2021, compared with 3% of the total US population, according to the report.
Demographics help explain the difference, Pew said noting the unauthorized immigrant population includes relatively few children or elderly adults, groups that tend not to be in the labor force.
Overall, about 7.8 million unauthorized immigrants were in the US labor force in 2021. That was up slightly from 2019 but smaller than every year from 2007 through 2015.
Since 2003, unauthorized immigrants have made up 4.4% to 5.4% of all US workers, a relatively narrow range, according to Pew.
Fewer than 1% of workers in Maine, Montana, Vermont and West Virginia in 2021 were unauthorized immigrants.
Nevada (9%) and Texas (8%) had the highest shares of unauthorized immigrants in the workforce.