US Trends

how many people were deported in 2024

In 2024, estimates for deportations depend a lot on what exactly is being counted and which country or agency you mean, but for the United States the best public numbers show hundreds of thousands of people were removed, not just a few thousand.

Key numbers for 2024

  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported a little over 271,000 formal deportations (“removals”) in U.S. fiscal year 2024 (October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024), which was the highest total in about a decade.
  • A broader U.S. government tally that includes various types of “repatriations” (people sent back at or near the border as well as formal removals) shows about 678,000 people repatriated as of November 2024.
  • Other countries have far smaller totals by comparison; for example, New Zealand reported a few hundred deportations in 2024 up to mid‑November , illustrating how country size and migration flows change the scale of deportation statistics.

What “how many were deported in 2024” can mean

When people ask “how many people were deported in 2024,” they are usually talking about the United States , and even there the answer changes depending on:

  • Which metric is used
    • “Removals” or “deportations” (formal ICE actions inside the U.S. and after some border processing).
* “Repatriations” or “returns,” which can include people turned around at the border under different authorities.
  • Which time frame is used
    • Calendar year 2024 (January–December) vs. U.S. fiscal year 2024 (October 2023–September 2024).

Because of these differences, any single number is an approximation unless you specify country + agency + legal category + time frame. For a quick headline view focused on the U.S., the most cited figures are roughly 271,000 formal ICE deportations in FY 2024 and about 678,000 total repatriations as of November 2024.

Note: Deportation is a sensitive topic involving human rights, family separation, and domestic politics. Statistics capture scale but not people’s individual stories, which is important context when discussing this as a “trending topic” or in forum‑style conversations.