According to a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center, most immigrants to the United States come from the Asia-Pacific and Latin America-Caribbean regions. The study showed an increase in immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East from 1992 to 2012 and a decrease in immigrants from Latin America, Europe and other parts of North America.
The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey of 2012 showed that there were 40.8 million immigrants in the country, comprising 13 percent of the total population. This has been steadily increasing from 1970, when the immigrant population was 5 percent of the total. The countries represented by the largest number of immigrants were Mexico, China and the Philippines.
