Immigration Issues

There were a record 44.4 million immigrants living in the U.S. in 2017, making up 13.6% of the nation’s population.

In 2016, a third of unauthorized immigrant adults were proficient in English – up from a quarter in 2007.

Proposals to change the U.S. immigration system have received renewed attention under the Trump administration. Read key details about U.S. immigration programs.

Money sent by immigrants to their home countries in sub-Saharan Africa reached a record $41 billion in 2017.

Worldwide, an estimated $625 billion (USD) was sent by migrants to individuals in their home countries in 2017, a 7% increase from 2016, when the amount was $586 billion, according to economists at the World Bank. This increase follows two consecutive years of decline.

In 2016, the 20 U.S. metro areas with the most unauthorized immigrants were home to 6.5 million of them, or 61% of the estimated total.

Sortable table of estimates of unauthorized immigrant populations in 182 U.S. metropolitan areas, derived from a sample of census data.

Unauthorized immigrants make up a quarter of all U.S. foreign-born residents. Our new interactive offers data on unauthorized immigrants by state.

Pew Research Center estimates that 10.7 million unauthorized immigrants, the lowest level in a decade, lived in the U.S. in 2016

Here’s a brief overview of four paths that many highly educated immigrants take to study and work in the U.S.: the H-1B visa program, the F-1 visa program, the Optional Practical Training program and green cards.