In the fiscal year of 2023, about ******* people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old received legal permanent residence status, also known as a green card, in the United States. A total of about ********* green cards were given out that year.

United States Immigrants Admitted: All Countries data was reported at 1,127,167.000 Person in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1,183,505.000 Person for 2016. United States Immigrants Admitted: All Countries data is updated yearly, averaging 451,510.000 Person from Sep 1900 (Median) to 2017, with 118 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,827,167.000 Person in 1991 and a record low of 23,068.000 Person in 1933. United States Immigrants Admitted: All Countries data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by US Department of Homeland Security. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.G087: Immigration.

In the fiscal year of 2023, about ******* people living in the New York-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area received legal permanent resident status, also known as a green card, in the United States. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area, about ****** people received a green card in that year.

In the fiscal year of 2023, about ******* females obtained legal permanent resident status in the United States. A total of ********* green cards were given out nationwide in that year.

In the fiscal year of 2021, about ******* immediate relatives of U.S. citizens received legal permanent residency, also known as a green card, in the United States. A further ******* people received a green card based on employment preferences in that year.

This data collection contains information on the characteristics of aliens who became legal permanent residents of the United States in fiscal year 1987 (October 1986 through September 1987). Data are presented for two types of immigrants. The first category, New Arrivals, arrived from outside the United States with valid immigrant visas issued by the United States Department of State. Those in the second category, Adjustments, were already in the United States with temporary status and were adjusted to legal permanent residence through petition to the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. Variables include port of entry, month and year of admission, class of admission, and state and area to which immigrants were admitted. Demographic information such as age, sex, marital status, occupation, country of birth, country of last permanent residence, and nationality is also provided.

A quarterly report that details the number of adjustments of immigration status that occurred during the reporting period, disaggregated by type of adjustment, type and detailed class of admission, and country of nationality.

In the fiscal year of 2023, ******* immigrants to the United States from Asia received legal permanent resident status, also known as a green card. In that same year, ****** immigrants from Europe received a green card.

Debates about migration are often in the news. People quote numbers about how many people are entering and leaving different countries. Governments need to plan and manage public resources based on how their own populations are changing.

Informed discussions and effective policymaking rely on good migration data. But how much do we really know about migration, and where do estimates come from?

In this article, I look at how countries and international agencies define different forms of migration, how they estimate the number of people moving in and out of countries, and how accurate these estimates are.

Migrants without legal status make up a small portion of the overall immigrant population. Most high-income countries and some middle-income ones have a solid understanding of how many immigrants live there. Tracking the exact flows of people moving in and out is trickier, but governments can reliably monitor long-term trends to understand the bigger picture.

Who is considered an international migrant? In the United Nations statistics, an international migrant is defined as “a person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for at least a year, so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence”.1

For example, an Argentinian person who spends nine months studying in the United States wouldn’t count as a long-term immigrant in the US. But an Argentinian person who moves to the US for two years would. Even if someone gains citizenship in their new country, they are still considered an immigrant in migration statistics.

The same applies in reverse for emigrants: someone leaving their home country for more than a year is considered a long-term emigrant for the country they’ve left. This does not change if they acquire citizenship in another country. Some national governments may have definitions that differ from the UN recommendations.

What about illegal migration? “Illegal migration” refers to the movement of people outside the legal rules for entering or leaving a country. There isn’t a single agreed-upon definition, but it generally involves people who breach immigration laws. Some refer to this as irregular or unauthorized migration.

There are three types of migrants who don’t have a legal immigration status. First, those who cross borders without the right legal permissions. Second, those who enter a country legally but stay after their visa or permission expires. Third, some migrants have legal permission to stay but work in violation of employment restrictions — for example, students who work more hours than their visa allows.

Tracking illegal migration is difficult. In regions with free movement, like the European Union, it’s particularly challenging. For example, someone could move from Germany to France, live there without registering, and go uncounted in official migration records.2 The rise of remote work has made it easier for people to live in different countries without registering as employees or taxpayers.

Legal permanent residents (LPRs) are foreign nationals who have been granted the right to reside permanently in the United States. LPRs are often referred to as simply 'immigrants,' but they are also known as 'permanent resident aliens' and 'green card holders.

Eurostat's annual collections of statistics on international migration flows are structured as follows:

• NOWCAST: Annual collection of provisional monthly data on live births and deaths covering at least 6 months of the reference year (Article 4.3 of https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2014/205/oj/eng" target="_self">Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014) and provisional monthly data on migrants covering at least 6 months of the reference year on a voluntary basis.
• DEMOBAL (Demographic balance): Annual collection of provisional data on population, total live births and total deaths at national level (Article 4.1 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014) and provisional data on total migrants at national level on a voluntary basis.
• POPSTAT (population statistics): The most in-depth annual national and regional data collection on demography and migration, for population, births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, marriages and divorces by a large number of breakdowns. (Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007).

The aim is to collect annual mandatory and voluntary data from the national statistical institutes. Mandatory data are those defined by the legislation listed under ‘6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements’.

The quality of the demographic data collected on a voluntary basis depends on the availability and quality of information provided by the national statistical institutes.

For more information on mandatory/voluntary data collection, see 6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements.

The following data on migrants are collected under unified demographic data collection:

• Immigrants by age, sex and:
  • Country of citizenship;
  • Country of birth;
  • Country of previous residence.
• Immigrants by country of citizenship and country of birth.
• Emigrants by age, sex and:
  • Country of citizenship;
  • Country of birth;
  • Country of next residence.

The New Immigrant Survey (NIS) was a nationally representative, longitudinal study of new legal immigrants to the United States and their children. The sampling frame was based on the electronic administrative records compiled for new legal permanent residents (LPRs) by the U.S. government (via, formerly, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and now its successor agencies, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS)). The sample was drawn from new legal immigrants during May through November of 2003. The geographic sampling design took advantage of the natural clustering of immigrants. It included all top 85 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and all top 38 counties, plus a random sample of MSAs and counties. The baseline survey (ICPSR 38031) was conducted from June 2003 to June 2004 and yielded data on: 8,573 Adult Sample respondents, 810 sponsor-parents of the Sampled Child, 4,915 spouses, and 1,072 children aged 8-12. This study contains the follow-up interview, conducted from June 2007 to October 2009, and yielded data on: 3,902 Adult Sample respondents, 351 sponsor-parents of the Sampled Child, 1,771 spouses, and 41 now-adult main child. Interviews were conducted in the respondents' language of choice. Round 2 instruments were designed to track changes from the baseline and also included new questions. As with the Round 1 questionnaire, questions that were used in social-demographic-migration surveys around the world as well as the major U.S. longitudinal surveys were reviewed in order to achieve comparability. The NIS content includes the following information: demographic, health and insurance, migration history, living conditions, transfers, employment history, income, assets, social networks, religion, housing environment, and child assessment tests.

Enforcement of immigration legislation data (EIL statistics) contain statistical information based on Article 5 and 7 of the Council Regulation (EC) no 862/2007 as amended by the Regulation 2020/851 with reference to Third country nationals:

• refused entry at the external border;
• found to be illegally present;
• ordered to leave;
• returned following an order to leave.

The national framework has an important impact on the resulted figures (the data comparability between the Member States is limited due to the national specific rules and procedures).

EIL data are based on administrative sources and are provided mainly by the Ministries of Interior or related Immigration Agencies. All of the data collected are disaggregated by citizenship.

Legal framework

The EIL statistics based on Article 5 and 7 of the Council Regulation (EC) no 862/2007 as amended by the Regulation 2020/851.

Some category of data is collected on voluntary basis.

Recent change in EIL data collection

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.198.01.0001.01.ENG" href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.198.01.0001.01.ENG" target="_blank">Regulation 2020/851 amending Council Regulation (EC) no 862/2007 introduced several changes such as increasing the frequency of the data collection on returns and collecting more breakdowns for the statistics on third country nationals found to be illegally present and third country nationals returned. 2021 year is the first reference period for the amendments (E.G., 1st quarter of 2021 represent the first reference period affected by the introduced by the Regulation 2020/851 for quarterly staistics on returns).

More details on the changes see Annex 5, 2021 EIL Technical Guidelines (see below).

Several member States applied for derogations regarding the new requirements mentioned by the https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.198.01.0001.01.ENG" href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.198.01.0001.01.ENG" target="_blank">Regulation 2020/851. See list of the derogation granted are in the Commission implementing Decision (EU) 2021/431 of 10 March 2021 granting https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021D0431&from=EN" target="_blank">derogations to certain Member States from Regulation (EC) No 862/2007

Data disemination

The dissemination of the annual statistics is mainly in March of each year for the previous reference year, depending on the data availability. The dissemination of the quarterly data is mainly in March, June, September and December, of each year for the previous reference quarter, depending on the data availability.

Data have been rounded to the nearest 5 while the EU aggregate is computed using the unrounded figures, which may trigger inconsistencies between the aggregate and the sum of the values.

Newer EIL statistics

I. Starting with first reference year 2014 new statistics on third country nationals returned were collected by Eurostat on voluntary basis:

• Third-country nationals who have left the territory by type of return and citizenship (migr_eirt_vol)
• Third-country nationals who have left the territory by type of assistance received and citizenship (migr_eirt_ass)
• Third-country nationals who have left the territory to a third country by type of agreement procedure and citizenship (migr_eirt_agr)
• Third-country nationals who have left the territory to a third country by destination country and citizenship (migr_eirt_des)

These new statistics is the result of a pilot data collection; clarifications and improvement is being pursued with the data providers. Technical and methodological limitations exist for some data providers and some figures might be estimated. As a result some inconsistency might exist between these statistics and the statistics provided for table 'Third country nationals returned following an order to leave (migr_eiord and migr_eirtn). In those cases where inconsistency between tables exists, data revision is expected.

II. Starting with first quarter of 2018 new quartely statistics on third country returned were as well collected by Eurostat on voluntary basis:

• Third country nationals returned following an order to leave by citizenship age and sex - quarterly data (rounded) (migr_eirtn1)
• Third country nationals ordered to leave by citizenship, age and sex - quarterly data (rounded) (migr_eiord1)

These new statistics were initially the result of a pilot data collection;

III. Starting with first quarter of 2018 age and sex categories are collected for the statistics on thirst country nationals subject of return procedure (ordered to leave and returned persons), annual and quarterly data, for the following tables:

• Third country nationals ordered to leave - annual data (rounded) (migr_eiord)
• Third country nationals ordered to leave by citizenship, age and sex - quarterly data (rounded) (migr_eiord1)
• Third country nationals returned following an order to leave - annual data (rounded) (migr_eirtn)
• Third-country nationals returned following an order to leave, by type of return, citizenship, country of destination, age and and sex – quarterly data (rounded) (migr_eirtn1)

IV. Starting with first quarter of 2021 the quarterly statistics on returns is becoming mandatory for all the Member States. Third country nationals unacompanied minors subject of return procedure are also collected following the https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.198.01.0001.01.ENG" href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.198.01.0001.01.ENG" target="_blank">Regulation 2020/851. The following tables are collected under this framework in 2021:

• Third country nationals ordered to leave by citizenship, age and sex - quarterly data (rounded) (migr_eiord1)
• Third-country unaccompanied minors ordered to leave, by citizenship, age and sex of the minor – quarterly data (rounded) (migr_eiord2)
• Third-country nationals returned following an order to leave, by type of return, citizenship, country of destination, age and and sex – quarterly data (rounded) (migr_eirtn1)
• Third-country unaccompanied minors returned following an order to leave, by type of return, citizenship, country of destination, age and sex of the minor – quarterly data (rounded) (migr_eirtn2)

Theese quality statistics are expected to meet the minimum requirements as stated in 2021 EIL Technical guidelines. However, the data availability is affected by the derogations granted to several countries, especially for the statistics on returns of unaccompanied minors. See list of the derogation granted are in the Commission implementing Decision (EU) 2021/431 of 10 March 2021 granting https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021D0431&from=EN" target="_blank">derogations to certain Member States from Regulation (EC) No 862/2007

Annex 4 present the data quality assessment done in June 2021 for the EIL quarterly statistics provided under the new framework refering to the https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.198.01.0001.01.ENG" href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.198.01.0001.01.ENG" target="_blank">Regulation 2020/851.

Eurostat's annual collections of statistics on international migration flows are structured as follows:

• NOWCAST: Annual collection of provisional monthly data on live births and deaths covering at least 6 months of the reference year (Article 4.3 of https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2014/205/oj/eng" target="_self">Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014) and provisional monthly data on migrants covering at least 6 months of the reference year on a voluntary basis.
• DEMOBAL (Demographic balance): Annual collection of provisional data on population, total live births and total deaths at national level (Article 4.1 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014) and provisional data on total migrants at national level on a voluntary basis.
• POPSTAT (population statistics): The most in-depth annual national and regional data collection on demography and migration, for population, births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, marriages and divorces by a large number of breakdowns. (Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 862/2007).

The aim is to collect annual mandatory and voluntary data from the national statistical institutes. Mandatory data are those defined by the legislation listed under ‘6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements’.

The quality of the demographic data collected on a voluntary basis depends on the availability and quality of information provided by the national statistical institutes.

For more information on mandatory/voluntary data collection, see 6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements.

The following data on migrants are collected under unified demographic data collection:

• Immigrants by age, sex and:
  • Country of citizenship;
  • Country of birth;
  • Country of previous residence.
• Immigrants by country of citizenship and country of birth.
• Emigrants by age, sex and:
  • Country of citizenship;
  • Country of birth;
  • Country of next residence.

A legal permanent resident (LPR) or “green card” recipient is defined by immigration law as a person who has been granted lawful permanent residence in the United States. Permanent resident status confers certain rights and responsibilities. For example, LPRs may live and work permanently anywhere in the United States, own property, and attend public schools, colleges, and universities.

Public use data set on new legal immigrants to the U.S. that can address scientific and policy questions about migration behavior and the impacts of migration. A survey pilot project, the NIS-P, was carried out in 1996 to inform the fielding and design of the full NIS. Baseline interviews were ultimately conducted with 1,127 adult immigrants. Sample members were interviewed at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months, with half of the sample also interviewed at three months. The first full cohort, NIS-2003, is based on a nationally representative sample of the electronic administrative records compiled for new immigrants by the US government. NIS-2003 sampled immigrants in the period May-November 2003. The geographic sampling design takes advantage of the natural clustering of immigrants. It includes all top 85 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and all top 38 counties, plus a random sample of other MSAs and counties. Interviews were conducted in respondents'' preferred languages. The baseline was multi-modal: 60% of adult interviews were administered by telephone; 40% were in-person. The baseline round was in the field from June 2003 to June 2004, and includes in the Adult Sample 8,573 respondents, 4,336 spouses, and 1,072 children aged 8-12. A follow-up was planned for 2007. Several modules of the NIS were designed to replicate sections of the continuing surveys of the US population that provide a natural comparison group. Questionnaire topics include Health (self-reports of conditions, symptoms, functional status, smoking and drinking history) and use/source/costs of health care services, depression, pain; background; (2) Background: Childhood history and living conditions, education, migration history, marital history, military history, fertility history, language skills, employment history in the US and foreign countries, social networks, religion; Family: Rosters of all children; for each, demographic attributes, education, current work status, migration, marital status and children; for some, summary indicators of childhood and current health, language ability; Economic: Sources and amounts of income, including wages, pensions, and government subsidies; type, value of assets and debts, financial assistance given/received to/from respondent from/to relatives, friends, employer, type of housing and ownership of consumable durables. * Dates of Study: 2003-2007 * Study Features: Longitudinal * Sample Size: 13,981

Residence permits data collection refers to residence permits as any authorisation issued by the authorities of a Member State allowing a third-country national (non-EU citizen) to stay legally on its territory. These statistics cover also some specific cases in which the third-country nationals have the right to be move to and stay in other EU Member States.

Data is based on administrative sources¹, provided mainly by the Ministries of Interior or related Immigration Agencies. Data are generally disseminated in July in the year following the reference year, subject to data availability and data quality.

Residence permits statistics is based on http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32007R0862" target="_blank">Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007 (Migration Statistics Regulation) as amended by the Regulation 2020/851 and it covers the following topics:

• the main RESPER data collection based on Article 6 of the Migration Statistics Regulation
  • First residence permits;
  • Residence permits issued on the occasion of changing the immigration status or reason to stay;
  • Residence permits valid at the end of the year;
  • Long-term residence permits valid at the end of the year;
  • Long-term permits issued during the year.

• Statistics collected on voluntary basis
  • Residence permits issued for family reunification with beneficiaries of protection status.

The definitions used for residence permits and other concepts (e.g. first permit) are presented in the section 3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions. The detailed data collection methodology is presented in Annex 9 of this metadata file.

Temporary protection status is considered of different administrative nature then the residence permits reported in RESPER data collection. Therefore, persons benefitting from temporary protection are not included in any of the Residence permits statistics. These persons are subject of another data collection on Temporary Protection (TP).

LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Residence data contain statistical information based on Article 6 of http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32007R0862" target="_blank">Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007. This legal framework refers to the initial residence permits data collection with 2008 first reference period (e.g. first residence permits; change of immigration status or reason to stay; all valid residence permits in the end of the year and long-term residence permits valid in the end of the year) and it provides also a general framework for newer data collections based on specific European legal acts (e.g. statistics on EU Blue Cards and statistics on single permits) or provided on voluntary basis (e.g. residence permits issued for family reunification with beneficiaries of protection status).

Regulation 2020/851 amending Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007 was recently implemented. The amendment introduced several changes to the statistics on Asylum and Managed Migration. Some data collections become mandatory starting with the 2021 reference period, while new statistics are subject to pilot studies for further assessing the feasibility of collecting these statistics.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Starting with the 2021 reference period, there were several improvements in the data collection, including the methodological aspects. These changes were introduced through the implementation of Regulation 2020/851 amending Council Regulation (CE) No 862 of 11 July 2007. More details are available in the Annex 9.

Starting from 2025, the residence permits and EU directives data collection now includes six metadata files in total. Countries are required to submit six distinct files. For those that have not yet provided the updated six files, the previous metadata format, included in the annex of this metadata file (Annex 10), remains available as a reference.

INDICATORS

The indicators presented in the table 'Long-term residents among all non-EU citizens holding residence permits by citizenship on 31 December (%)' are produced within the framework of the pilot study related to the integration of migrants in the Member States, following the Zaragoza Declaration.

The Zaragoza Declaration, adopted in April 2010 by EU Ministers responsible for immigrant integration issues, and approved at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 3-4 June 2010, called upon the Commission to undertake a pilot study to examine proposals for common integration indicators and to report on the availability and quality of the data from agreed harmonised sources necessary for the calculation of these indicators. In June 2010 the ministers agreed "to promote the launching of a pilot project with a view to the evaluation of integration policies, including examining the indicators and analysing the significance of the defined indicators taking into account the national contexts, the background of diverse migrant populations and different migration and integration policies of the Member States, and reporting on the availability and quality of the data from agreed harmonised sources necessary for the calculation of these indicators".

These indicators are produced on the basis of residence permit statistics collected by Eurostat on the basis of Article 6 of the Migration Statistics Regulation 862/2007. As a denominator data on the stock of all valid permits to stay at the end of each reporting year are used. As a numerator data on the stock of long-term residents are used. Two types of long term residents are distinguished in accordance with the residence permit statistics: EU long-term resident status (as regulated by the Council Directive 2003/109/EC) and the National long-term resident status (as regulated by the national legislation in the Member States).

DATA CONSISTENCY

The data providers should use the same methodological specifications provided by Eurostat and some collected tables from should be cross-consistent according to this methodology. However, consistency issues between tables exist due to some technical limitations (e.g. different data sources) or different methodology applied to each table (see the quality information from below or the national metadata files) or different point in time of producing each tables.

¹There are few exceptions referring to the situation in which the administrative registers cannot provide the required information and some estimations are made. For example, the statistics for the United Kingdom (2008-2019) use different data sources to those used in EU Member States and EFTA countries. For that reason, the statistics on residence permits published by Eurostat for UK may not be fully comparable with the statistics reported by other countries. Statistics for the United Kingdom are not based on records of residence permits issued (as the United Kingdom does not operate a system of residence permits), but instead relate to the numbers of arriving non-EU citizens permitted to enter the country under selected immigration categories. According to the United Kingdom authorities, data are estimated from a combination of information due to be published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin 'Control of Immigration: Statistics, United Kingdom' and unpublished management information. The 'Other reasons' category includes: diplomat, consular officer treated as exempt from control; retired persons of independent means; all other passengers given limited leave to enter who are not included in any other category; non-asylum discretionary permissions. Another example is the data on stock of all valid residence permits for Denmark, see Annex 8 (Data quality of valid residence permits in Denmark).