What are the most common countries of origin for undocumented immigrants in the US as of 2025?

1. Mexico still tops the list, but its share has fallen

Mexico continued to be the largest country of origin for undocumented immigrants with about 5.5 million people as of mid‑2023, though that figure remained well below its 2007 peak and represented a shrinking share of the total unauthorized population compared with a decade earlier ^[1].

2. The Northern Triangle and Central America are major contributors

El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—the “Northern Triangle”—have been steady and rising sources of undocumented migration since the mid‑2010s, collectively accounting for a large Central American component of the total undocumented population ^{[5] [6]}. Migration from Central America overall increased in recent years and now represents a substantially larger share than in earlier decades ^[7].

3. South American origins have expanded, notably Venezuela and Colombia

South American countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador appear among the top origin countries outside Mexico and the Northern Triangle, reflecting political and economic crises that drove larger flows of migrants and asylum seekers in the early 2020s ^[8].

4. Caribbean and special‑parole arrivals changed the composition briefly

Parole programs implemented in 2022–2024 led to sizable increases in arrivals from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua, and later from Venezuela and Ukraine, altering the undocumented tally; many of those temporary protections were ended or scaled back by mid‑2025, changing both counts and legal status for hundreds of thousands ^{[3] [4]}.

5. Asia and other regions contribute important but smaller shares

Countries outside the Western Hemisphere also figure prominently among undocumented origins: the Philippines, India and China are repeatedly cited among the largest non‑Western‑Hemisphere origin countries for unauthorized immigrants, even if their totals remain smaller than those from Mexico and the Americas ^{[8] [2]}.

6. Aggregate estimates and methodological caveats

Different research groups offer slightly different totals and rankings: MPI estimated about 13.7 million unauthorized immigrants in mid‑2023 and emphasized growing diversity of origins ^[2], while Pew’s revised figures and other administrative data suggest shifts through 2024 and into 2025 tied to policy changes and enforcement that make precise, up‑to‑the‑month rankings difficult ^{[3] [4]}. Experts warn that incomplete 2024–2025 data, changing parole programs, and differing estimation methods mean country rankings are stable in broad strokes but not immutable ^{[3] [9]}.

7. What “most common” means in 2025: a practical summary

Taken together, the most common countries of origin for undocumented immigrants in the United States around 2025 remain, in broad order: Mexico; key Central American countries led by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador; several South American countries including Venezuela and Colombia; and a mix of Caribbean arrivals such as Cuba and Haiti influenced by temporary parole policies, with the Philippines, India and China prominent among origins outside the Americas ^{[1] [8] [3] [7]}. The precise ranking can shift depending on whether one measures absolute counts, recent arrivals, or changes after parole and deportation actions in 2024–2025 ^{[4] [2]}.

Conclusion: steady plurality, rising diversity, policy sensitivity

The headline is clear: Mexico remains the largest single country of origin but no longer dominates to the extent it once did, while Central America, parts of South America, the Caribbean and selected Asian countries now collectively represent a far more heterogeneous undocumented population—an outcome shaped as much by economic and political crises abroad as by U.S. parole, asylum and enforcement policies that shifted sharply between 2022 and 2025 ^{[1] [5] [3]}.