PEW: Six Percent of Nevada’s Population is ‘Unauthorized’

According to a study published by Pew Research drawn from census and labor data, nearly six percent of Nevada’s population are “unauthorized immigrants.’  The study notes that from 2019-2021, the number of  unauthorized immigrants in Nevada decreased by 25,000. Nevada (9%) and Texas (8%) had the highest shares of unauthorized immigrants in the workforce.

Additionally, the study stresses that since 2021, there has been a surge in southern border crossings resulting in record-high encounters with the United States Border Patrol,

Pew Research also finds that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. remained relatively stable from 2017-2021, yet the demographics of the unauthorized immigrant population has become more diverse. Although Mexico remains the leading origin of unauthorized immigrants, increases in Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Asia, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa have grown.

The U.S. foreign-born population was 14.1% of the nation’s population in 2021. As of 2021, the nation’s 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants represented about 3% of the total U.S. population and 22% of the foreign-born population.