How many people are in Ohio illegally?

With illegal immigration in focus with recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Ohio, one question is how many undocumented immigrants are in the state.

The short answer is, it depends on the source.

According to the Pew Research Center, which based its estimates on augmented U.S. Census Bureau data, the state had 190,000 “unauthorized immigrants” in 2023, the most recent numbers available. That total, which represents about 1.6% of Ohio’s population, is up 35.7% from 140,000 in 2022 and 111.1% 90,000 in 2016.

In the new year, Ohio lawmakers could consider House Bill 42, which mandates that some local and state agencies collect and report data about the citizenship or immigration status of people they interact with. It is currently pending before the House Government Oversight Committee.

“I think it’s important not only to get at the number of the population, but the number of tax dollars being spent on that population,” state Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., told Ohio.News in an exclusive interview. “Every year they scream for more school funding, free lunches, free housing, free health care, free this and free that. Yet when we try to get to the data of how much money we’re wasting providing services for illegal immigrants, everyone obstructs that information.

“They say that illegal immigrants don’t get Medicaid; yet illegal immigrants can go into the hospital, go to the emergency room, and because they are low income, the hospitals have presumptive authority to already start treating people before they are actually eligible for Medicaid,” Williams added. “They are able to just presume that you are eligible because of your low-income status and treat you. We’re watching our emergency rooms essentially turn into free clinics for illegal immigrants, and that’s why one of the requirements is let us know how much money we’re spending in our public hospitals to treat illegal immigrants.”

According to Pew data, Mexico is the country of birth with the highest percentage of unauthorized immigrants in Ohio.

Mexico also ranked as the country of birth with the most unauthorized immigrants in Michigan, Indiana, and West Virginia. In Kentucky, it was Cuba, while in Pennsylvania, it was the Dominican Republic.

More than one in four, 28%, of all immigrants are unauthorized in Ohio, according to Pew.