Georgia unauthorized immigrant population reaches nearly 500,000, report says

Lautaro Grinspan, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Nov 20, 2025

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ATLANTA — The number of unauthorized immigrants living in Georgia reached 479,000 as of mid-2023, according to a report released last month by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank focused on immigration.

Georgia’s population of unauthorized immigrants increased by more than 45% since 2018, according to MPI. The growth moved Georgia from seventh-most nationwide to sixth-most, replacing New Jersey.

The report’s authors described Georgia as one of the country’s “newer destination states.”

MPI uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Homeland Security to calculate its estimates. Mid-2023 is the latest date for which comprehensive demographic information is available.

The top ten states of residence for the country’s unauthorized population, according to the MPI report:

“Strong growth in the unauthorized immigrant population in 2022 and 2023, amid record levels of encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border, ended a decade-long period of stasis,” the report says. “Against this backdrop, the unauthorized immigrant population at the mid-2023 mark was more diverse than ever before.”

Georgia also had the seventh-largest population of children under age 18 with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent, at 240,000. Nationwide, 6.3 million children lived with one parent who is in the country illegally. Of those children, the great majority — 5.3 million — were U.S. citizens, per the report.

According to MPI estimates, Mexicans account for the single-largest unauthorized immigrant group in Georgia. Nearly 180,000 of the immigrants living in the state illegally were born in Mexico, good for 37% of the state’s total. After Mexico, top countries of origin include Guatemala (80,000 unauthorized immigrants in Georgia), Honduras (45,000), El Salvador (28,000) and Venezuela (24,000).

The majority of Georgia’s unauthorized immigrants have been living in the U.S. for more than 15 years, with 72,000 having spent between 15 and 19 years in the country, and 213,000 having spent 20 years or more.

Nearly 95,000 have lived fewer than five years in the U.S., or about one fifth of the total.

The state’s unauthorized immigrant population leans male (56%), MPI found.

Top areas of employment include construction (31% of the total number of unauthorized immigrants with employment) and manufacturing (12%).

More than 60% of unauthorized immigrants in the state lack health insurance, and less than 40% are homeowners.

Report authors write that the unauthorized immigrant population likely continued expanding nationwide through mid-2024, citing “high border encounters and continued inflows of migrants permitted entry pending a future U.S. immigration court date or granted humanitarian parole.”

After that, they write that growth likely stalled before possible reversing in 2025, due to heavy immigration enforcement and “an overall atmosphere intended to convince would-be migrants not to come and current unauthorized immigrants to leave.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in Georgia are among the highest in the country, federal data shows.