Immigrants without legal status in some countries
Irregular migrants are estimated to be a small minority of all immigrants in most high-income nations. The US stands out, with an estimated 22% of its immigrant population lacking legal status. In contrast, in the UK and in Italy the share is 7%, in Spain 6%, in Germany 4%, in France 3%.
Source: Simon van Teutem and Tuna Acisu (2024) – “How do countries measure immigration, and how accurate is this data?” Published online at OurWorldinData.org; data from Kierans, D. and Vargas-Silva, C. (2024) and UN DESA (2020).