Another 23% of all immigrants were unauthorized immigrants. Some 27% of immigrants were permanent residents and 5% were temporary residents in 2017. Most immigrants (77%) are in the country legally, while almost a quarter are unauthorized, according to new Pew Research Center estimates based on census data adjusted for undercount. What is the legal status of immigrants in the U.S.? However, today’s immigrant share remains below the record 14.8% share in 1890, when 9.2 million immigrants lived in the U.S. population, nearly triple the share (4.8%) in 1970.

Immigrants today account for 13.7% of the U.S. immigration laws replaced a national quota system, the number of immigrants living in the U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 44.8 million in 2018. Based on these portraits, here are answers to some key questions about the U.S. Pew Research Center regularly publishes statistical portraits of the nation’s foreign-born population, which include historical trends since 1960. The population of immigrants is also very diverse, with just about every country in the world represented among U.S. were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants. Today, more than 40 million people living in the U.S.

The United States has more immigrants than any other country in the world. View interactive charts and detailed tables on U.S.