Guatemalan Immigrants in the United States
A man carrying the flag of Guatemala in a parade in Washington, DC. (Photo: Roberto Galan/iStock.com)
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The nearly 1.3 million immigrants from Guatemala in 2023 represented less than 3 percent of all 47.8 million immigrants in the United States, but this group has been growing at a much faster rate than the total U.S. foreign-born population.
Guatemalan migration to the United States has risen significantly since the latter half of the 20th century, spurred by political and economic instability, including a 36-year civil war (1960-96) that impelled many Indigenous and Ladino (people of mixed ancestry) Guatemalans to migrate first to Mexico and then to the United States. Other contributing factors for this northward movement include high poverty in rural areas, displacement due to natural disasters, insecurity after the war, and plentiful job opportunities in the United States.
Today, Guatemala is one of the countries most reliant on remittances, with nearly 20 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) as of 2023 due to money sent to loved ones by emigrants and others abroad, primarily in the United States.
Compared to the overall immigrant population in the United States, Guatemalans are more likely to be in the labor force, tend to earn lower incomes, and are less likely to have become U.S. citizens. A large share lacks legal status. Most Guatemalan immigrants have settled in U.S. states with strong economies and established Latino communities, particularly California, Florida, and Texas, as well as the greater Washington, DC area. Men and boys made up 57 percent of Guatemalan immigrants, in contrast with the overall immigrant population in which women and girls represented 51 percent.
This Spotlight provides updated information on the Guatemalan immigrant population in the United States, focusing on its size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.
Click on the bullet points below for more information:
- Size of Immigrant Population over Time
- Distribution by State and Key Cities
- English Proficiency
- Age, Education, and Employment
- Income and Poverty
- Immigration Pathways and Naturalization
- Unauthorized Immigrant Population
- Health Coverage
- Diaspora
- Top Global Destinations
- Remittances
Size of Immigrant Population over Time
Since 1980, the Guatemalan immigrant population in the United States has grown substantially. The number of Guatemalans residing in the United States increased nearly eightfold between 1980 and 2000. The population has continued expanding since 2000, albeit at a slower pace (see Figure 1). As of 2023, the Guatemalan immigrant population in the United States stood at nearly 1.3 million.
Since 2010, Guatemalans have been among the fastest-growing groups from Central America, with the population increasing 50 percent between 2010 and 2023, compared to 20 percent for the overall immigrant population.
Source: Data from U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 and 2023 American Community Surveys (ACS), and Campbell J. Gibson and Kay Jung, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850-2000" (Working Paper no. 81, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, February 2006), available online.
Distribution by State and Key Cities
The Guatemalan immigrant population in the United States is predominantly concentrated along the U.S. Southern border and in the South and Mid-Atlantic regions. As of the 2019-23 period, the largest numbers of Guatemalan immigrants were in California (27 percent), followed by Florida (9 percent), Texas (8 percent), and New York (6 percent). The top counties of residence for Guatemalan immigrants were Los Angeles County, California; Harris County, Texas; Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, Florida; and Prince George’s County, Maryland. Together, these five counties were home to one-quarter of all Guatemalan immigrants in the United States.
Click here for an interactive map that highlights the states and counties with the highest concentrations of immigrants from Guatemala or other country.
The greater Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, Miami, and Houston metropolitan areas had the largest Guatemalan communities. These five metro areas accounted for 40 percent of Guatemalans in the United States.
Figure 2. Top Metropolitan Destinations for Guatemalan Immigrants in the United States, 2019-23
Note: Pooled 2019-23 ACS data were used to get statistically valid estimates at the metropolitan statistical-area level for smaller-population geographies. Not shown are the populations in Alaska or Hawaii, which are small in size. For details, visit MPI’s Migration Data Hub for an interactive map showing geographic distribution of immigrants by metro area, available online.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from U.S. Census Bureau pooled 2019-23 ACS.
Click here for an interactive map that highlights the metro areas with the most immigrants from Guatemala or other country.
Guatemalan immigrants are less likely to be proficient in English than the overall U.S. foreign-born population. In 2023, about 72 percent of Guatemalans ages 5 and over reported speaking English less than “very well,” compared to 47 percent of all immigrants. Seven percent of Guatemalans spoke only English at home, versus 17 percent of the total foreign-born population. For many Guatemalans, Indigenous languages such as Kaqchikel or Mam are the primary spoken language, not Spanish. This is because, in Guatemala, approximately 44 percent of residents identify as Indigenous, including various Mayan groups, with smaller populations identifying as Xinca or Garifuna.
Age, Education, and Employment
Guatemalan immigrants are, on average, younger than the overall foreign-born population and similar in age to the native born. The median age for Guatemalan immigrants was 37 years in 2023, similar to U.S. natives and compared to 47 years for all immigrants. This is due to the higher share of Guatemalan children who are immigrants themselves: 11 percent of Guatemalan immigrants were under 18, versus 6 percent of the overall foreign-born population. Compared to both the total immigrant and U.S.-born populations, Guatemalans were more likely to be of working age: 83 percent versus 76 percent and 58 percent, respectively.
Figure 3. Age Distribution of the U.S. Population by Origin, 2023
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
Overall, Guatemalans tend to have lower educational attainment than both the U.S. born and overall immigrant population. In 2023, 9 percent of Guatemalan immigrants ages 25 and older reported having at least a bachelor’s degree, compared to 36 percent of U.S.-born and 35 percent of all foreign-born adults (see Figure 4). Fifty-five percent of Guatemalan immigrant adults had less than a high school diploma.
Figure 4. Educational Attainment of the U.S. Population (ages 25 and older) by Origin, 2023
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
Click here for data on immigrants’ educational attainment by country of origin and overall.
According to the Institute of International Education, 1,350 students from Guatemala were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities during the 2023-24 school year, comprising a tiny share of the more than 1.1 million international students in the United States. Guatemalans represented 5 percent of the 25,400 students from the Mexico and Central America subregion.
Guatemalans tend to participate in the labor force at a higher rate than immigrants overall. In 2023, 74 percent of Guatemalan immigrants 16 and older were in the U.S. civilian labor force, compared to 67 percent of immigrants overall and 63 percent of the U.S. born. Employed Guatemalan immigrants were more likely to be in service occupations, followed by natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Employed Workers in the Civilian Labor Force (ages 16 and older) by Occupation and Origin, 2023
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
Guatemalan immigrants tend to have much lower incomes than both the overall foreign- and native-born populations. In 2023, the median income for households led by Guatemalan immigrants was $61,200, compared to $78,700 for all immigrant-led households and $77,600 for those headed by the U.S. born.
Guatemalan immigrants are also more likely to be living in poverty than both the U.S.-born and overall immigrant populations. In 2023, 20 percent of Guatemalan immigrants were in poverty, compared to 14 percent of the overall foreign-born population and 12 percent of the U.S. born. (The U.S. Census Bureau defines poverty as having an income below $30,900 for a family of four in 2023.)
Immigration Pathways and Naturalization
Compared to all immigrants, Guatemalans are more likely to have arrived since 2010. Approximately 47 percent arrived in 2010 or later, compared to 35 percent of all immigrants (see Figure 6). Because of their relative recency of arrival, Guatemalans are less likely to be naturalized U.S. citizens than the overall foreign-born population (25 percent versus 52 percent, respectively).
Figure 6. Guatemalans and All Immigrants in the United States by Period of Arrival, 2023
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
In fiscal year (FY) 2023, approximately 15,700 Guatemalans became lawful permanent residents (LPRs, also known as green-card holders), accounting for 1 percent of all 1.2 million new green-card recipients that year. Fifty-one percent of Guatemalans who received a green card that year did so through family sponsorship, while about 18 percent did so through the asylum and refugee pathways.
Unauthorized Immigrant Population
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that as of mid-2023 about 1.4 million (10 percent) of all 13.7 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States were from Guatemala. This reflects a sharp increase from the estimated 506,000 unauthorized Guatemalan immigrants in 2010. (Note: MPI estimates of the number of unauthorized immigrants account for potential Census Bureau undercounts of the overall immigrant population; therefore, this figure is somewhat higher than the publicly available American Community Survey [ACS] data used elsewhere in this Spotlight.)
Click here for an overview of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States as of mid-2023.
As of December 2024, approximately 14,300 immigrants from Guatemala participated in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, accounting for less than 3 percent of all 533,000 DACA recipients. DACA provides temporary deportation relief and work authorization to unauthorized immigrants who arrived in the United States as children and meet the program’s education and other eligibility criteria.
Click here to view the top origin countries of DACA recipients and their U.S. states of residence.
Partly because many Guatemalans are unauthorized immigrants or work in sectors that tend not to offer health insurance via employment, they are much more likely to be uninsured than the overall foreign-born population. In 2023, 47 percent of Guatemalan immigrants were uninsured, compared to 18 percent of all immigrants (see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Health Coverage for Guatemalan Immigrants, All Immigrants, and the U.S. Born, 2023
Note: The sum of shares by type of insurance is likely to be greater than 100 because people may have more than one type of insurance.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
The Guatemalan diaspora in the United States was comprised of more than 2.3 million individuals who were either born in Guatemala or reported Guatemalan ancestry or origin in 2023, according to MPI tabulation of U.S. Census Bureau data. The Guatemalan diaspora was the 20th largest in the country.
Click here to see estimates of the 35 largest diasporas groups in the United States in 2023.
The United States is overwhelmingly the most popular destination for Guatemalans living abroad, according to 2024 United Nations Population Division estimates. Mexico is home to the next largest population of Guatemalans (81,000), followed by Belize (29,600), Canada (18,200), and El Salvador (9,200).
Click here to view an interactive map showing where migrants from Guatemala and other countries have settled worldwide.
Guatemalans living abroad and others with connections to the country sent almost $20 billion in remittances to families and friends in Guatemala via formal channels in 2023, according to World Bank estimates (see Figure 8). That represents an almost $9 billion increase since 2019, likely reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent constrained economy in Guatemala that made it difficult to afford basic goods. Remittances represented close to 20 percent of Guatemala’s GDP in 2023, up from 14 percent in 2019.
Figure 8. Annual Remittance Flows to Guatemala, 2000-23
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the World Bank Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), “Remittance Inflows,” June 2024 update, available online.
Click here to view an interactive chart showing annual remittances received by and sent to Guatemala and other countries.
Sources
Gibson, Campbell J. and Kay Jung. 2006. Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-2000. Working Paper no. 81, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, February 2006. Available online.
Institute of International Education (IIE). 2024. International Students: All Places of Origin. Available online.
Jonas, Susanne. 2013. Guatemalan Migration in Times of Civil War and Post-War Challenges. Migration Information Source, March 17, 2013. Available online.
Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD)/World Bank Group. 2024. Remittance Inflows. Updated September 2024. Available online.
Migration Policy Institute (MPI), Migration Data Hub. 2024. Refugee and Asylum Seeker Populations by Country of Origin and Destination, 2000-2023. Updated July 31, 2024. Available online.
---. N.d. U.S. Immigrant Population by State and County. Accessed October 15, 2024. Available online.
United Nations Population Division. 2024. International Migrant Stock 2024: Destination and Origin. Available online.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2024. 2023 American Community Survey. Accessed from Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Matthew Sobek, Daniel Backman, Annie Chen, Grace Cooper, Stephanie Richards, Renae Rodgers, and Megan Schouweiler. IPUMS USA: Version 15.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2024. Available online.
---. N.d. 2023 American Community Survey—Advanced Search: S0201 Selected Population Profile in the United States. Accessed September 30, 2024. Available online.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 2025. Count of Active DACA Recipients by Month of Current DACA Expiration as of December 31, 2024. Updated February 2025. Available online.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS). 2024. 2023 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. Washington, DC: DHS OHSS. Available online.
World Bank Group. 2025. GDP per Capita (current US$). Updated April 15, 2025. Available online.