DATASET: Undocumented Immigrants in the United States, by Health Insurance Coverage and Year, 2010-2019

You may download annual data on undocumented immigrants in the United States, by health insurance coverage and year, from 2010-2019 in Excel format using the button on the sidebar.

Variables:

• Year
• Total number of undocumented children (under age 18)
• Total number of undocumented adults (age 18 and over)
• Total number of undocumented children with no health insurance coverage
• Total number of undocumented children with health insurance coverage
• Total number of undocumented adults with no health insurance coverage
• Total number of undocumented adults with health insurance coverage

Time range:

• 2010-2019 (annually)

Methodology:

CMS derives its estimates from data collected annually in the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).[i] The ACS is an annual statistical survey covering approximately 1 percent of the total US population. The methodology involved three major steps:

• Applying a series of “logical edits” to identify and remove as many legal residents as possible from the ACS data for non-citizens who arrived after 1981;
• Deriving separate population controls, for 145 countries or areas, for undocumented residents surveyed in the 2010 ACS;
• Using those population controls to select records in the ACS micro-data (public use microdata sample (PUMS)) to be classified as undocumented residents; and
• Adjusting for undercount of undocumented immigrants in the ACS.

The term “logical edit” refers to the process of determining probable legal status by examining survey data.  Respondents were assigned to the legal resident category if they worked in occupations that generally require legal status, were legal temporary migrants, were immediate relatives of US citizens, received public benefits, were from countries where most arrivals would be refugees, or were age 60 or older at entry.

A detailed description of the project and the methodology is available at:

Warren, Robert 2021. “In 2019, the US Undocumented Population Continued a Decade-Long Decline and the Foreign-Born Population Neared Zero Growth.” Journal on Migration and Human Security. doi: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2331502421993746.

Estimates are rounded to the nearest hundred. Pre-rounded figures under 500 are not presented.

For the current year’s estimates, please visit data.cmsny.org. To inquire about CMS data that may not be available publicly, please use the data request form at the bottom of the page here.

Read more about CMS’s Democratizing Data Initiative.

Citation:

Center for Migration Studies (CMS). 2022. “Democratizing Data Initiative: Undocumented Immigrants in the United States, by Health Insurance Coverage and Year, 2010-2019 [dataset].” New York, NY: CMS. https://www.cmsny.org/data-undocumented-national-health-insurance-2010-to-2019.

[i] IPUMS USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org.