Measured
12,814,754
Total encounters in deduped file set
Average American: CBP Encounters Explorer
What do border encounter numbers actually count?
Use CBP Public Data Portal downloads to inspect nationwide encounters by fiscal year, border region, demographic group, component, and geography. Encounters are events, not unique people.
Measured
2023
Largest fiscal-year total: 3,339,136 encounters
Measured
Single Adults
Largest demographic group: 8,434,756 encounters
Measured
Southwest Land Border
Largest border region: 10,115,519 encounters
CBP nationwide encounters
Encounters by fiscal year
This uses the deduped local download set. CBP encounters are events, not unique people.
Encounters by land border region
Encounters by demographic group
Encounters by CBP component
Encounters by encounter type
Encounters by title of authority
Geography detail
Highest encounter counts by state and area of responsibility
Top states
Top areas of responsibility
Source notes
CBP Public Data Portal Nationwide Encounters
Snapshot: Deduped local download set through FY2026 May
Limit: An encounter is an event. One person can have more than one encounter.
Raw files: 11 state files and 11 area-of-responsibility files.
Overlap handling: 829,923 repeated rows removed across rolling downloads.