U.S. Visa service
Annual ESTA authorization statistics (2009 to today)
The Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) has been mandatory for travelers participating in the Visa Waiver Program since January 2009. Since then, the number of applications has fluctuated: growth in the 2010s, massive disruption due to the pandemic in 2020–2021, then a gradual recovery. This page summarizes annual application and authorization volumes (2009 to present), specifies public sources, explains the years for which only estimates are available, and situates recent and prospective trends.
2009–2010: First full years after ESTA became mandatory; Government Accountability Office reports indicate about 13.8 million applications in 2009–2010 with approval rates above 99%.
2011–2015: A period where public publications mainly provide estimated number of respondents in PRA (OMB/CBP) notices. These values are the best available proxy for annual ESTA volumes.
2016–2019: Stable years before the pandemic, with official CBP figures showing approximately 14.6–15.2 million applications per year.
2020–2021: Sharp drop due to travel restrictions and the pandemic (e.g., about 6.3M in 2020 and about 1.26M in 2021 according to public fiscal year data).
2022–today: Gradual recovery; some projections and official notices estimate a steady rebound in volumes (exact approval figures may vary depending on the latest CBP publications).
It is important to distinguish two categories of figures: (1) declared volumes of applications or estimated respondents published in Federal Register and PRA notices (these values are reliably available for 2011–2015 in the form of estimates), and (2) totals of approvals actually granted, which CBP does not always publish in a consolidated form for each year. For 2016–2019, official CBP tables provide easily verifiable annual totals; for 2009–2010, GAO reports summarize the launch and the first volumes.