After more than 50 years of rapid growth, the US’ immigrant population is now in decline, according to new research from the Washington-based think tank the Pew Center.

The Trump administration’s extraordinary crackdown on migrants has decimated the US’ migrant population and effectively ended its appeal as a destination for migrants bringing negative implications for the US economy.

In January 2025, 53.3 million immigrants lived in the US, the largest number ever recorded.

In the following months, more immigrants left the country or were deported than arrived.

By June, the US’ foreign-born population had shrunk by more than a million people, marking its first decline since the 1960s, the Pew study said.

The Pew Center analysis of census data found that, as of June 2025, 51.9 million immigrants lived in the US and 5.4 per cent of all US. residents were immigrants, down from a recent historic high of 15.8 per cent.

At the same time, 19 per cent of the US labour force were immigrants, down from 20 per cent, and by over 750,000 workers since January.

A separate study by the Brookings Institution found the new migration figures could negatively affect the US economy.

“In addition to providing labour, immigrants generate demand for goods and services. A negative migration balance will have important implications for the macroeconomy,” the study said.

The study said that starting in mid-2024, several policy changes have affected the US immigrant population.

“In June 2024, President Joe Biden announced new restrictions on asylum applications, leading to a significant decline in border encounters with immigrants seeking asylum protections, the Pew study said.

“In his first 100 days since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump took 181 executive actions on immigration to curtail the arrival of new immigrants and deport non-citizen immigrants.

“The full effects of these policies remain to be seen, but already they are contributing to a declining immigrant population, especially the unauthorised immigrant population,” the Pew study said.

Mexico is the biggest source of migrants in the USD, the Pew data shows.

More than 11 million U.S. residents were born in Mexico, representing 22 per cent of all immigrants nationally.

The second-largest immigrant group was from India (3.2 million, or six per cent), followed by China (three million, or six per cent), the Philippines (2.1 million, or four per cent) and Cuba (1.7 million, or three per cent).

About half of all US immigrants (52 per cent, or 26.7 million people) were born in Latin America.

As well as migrants from Mexico and Cuba, more than a million hail from El Salvador (1.6 million), Guatemala (1.4 million), the Dominican Republic (1.4 million), Colombia (1.2 million), Honduras (1.1 million) and Venezuela (1.1 million).

After Latin America, Asia is the second-largest region of birth for US immigrants. Around a quarter of all immigrants (27 per cent, or nearly 14 million people) were born in Asia.

There were about 11 million immigrants from every other world region combined, accounting for 22 per cent of the US’ foreign-born population.

Ten per cent were born in Europe, five per cent in sub-Saharan Africa, four per cent in the Middle East-North Africa region, and two per cent in Canada or another North American country, the Pew study said.