The Evolving Demographics of Individuals Encountered at the US–Mexico Border
![The Evolving Demographics of Individuals Encountered at the US–Mexico Border](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.voronoiapp.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fvoronoi-The-Evolving-Demographics-of-Individuals-Encountered-at-the-USMexico-Border-20240510132011.webp&w=3840&q=75)
Between October 2019 and January 2024, at least 540,000 border encounters included children. The majority of child encounters, at 96.4%, are of unaccompanied children, with roughly 19,500, or 3.6%, made up of accompanied children.
Within this period, nearly 70% of the people the CBP encountered were single adults. The proportion of encounters of individuals in family units nearly tripled between fiscal years 2020 and 2023 from 11.6% to 31.0% of total encounters. The number of family unit encounters also includes children traveling with their families, who are not included in the unaccompanied or accompanied children categories.
Dataset
Demographic Type | Family members (FMUA) | Single adults | Unaccompanied children | Accompanied children |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | 74960 | 536792 | 34126 | 944 |
2021 | 483846 | 1321674 | 147975 | 3024 |
2022 | 614023 | 1993694 | 152880 | 5985 |
2023 | 993947 | 2061723 | 137992 | 7482 |
2024 (FYTD) | 461146 | 721457 | 46496 | 2114 |
Data sources
FYTD stands for fiscal year-to-date. The fiscal year begins in October and ends in September. Recent data is available up to January 2024. Family units represent the number of individuals in a family rather than the number of whole families.