Take a stroll through Queens, New York, or Downtown Los Angeles. You’ll hear a dozen different languages before you reach the end of the block. That’s America in 2025, still the world’s biggest magnet for people seeking new opportunities.
Here’s something that might surprise you: as of January 2025, the U.S. had 53.3 million foreign-born residents. That’s roughly 16% of everyone living here.
And while there’s been a lot of political noise about immigration lately (when isn’t there?), the numbers tell an interesting story about who’s actually coming here and why.
The immigrant population actually dipped a bit between January and June 2025. It was the first decline since the 1960s.
Policy shifts and stricter enforcement played a role. But even with these changes, America remains the top destination for immigrants worldwide.
So which countries are sending the most people? The answer might not be what you’d expect, or maybe it’s exactly what you’d expect. Let’s dig into the data.
Mexico
Okay, this one probably isn’t shocking anyone. Mexico has been the top source of U.S. immigrants for decades, and 2025 keeps that streak going strong.
Right now, about 11 million people living in the U.S. were born in Mexico. That’s 22% of all immigrants in the country, basically one out of every four.
The reasons aren’t complicated. We share a 2,000-mile border, families are split between both countries, and economic opportunities in the U.S. have always been a powerful draw.
But here’s what’s interesting: Mexico’s dominance is actually shrinking a bit. In 2010, Mexican immigrants made up 29% of the foreign-born population. That’s dropped to 22-23% now. It’s not that fewer Mexicans are coming. It’s that immigration from other places is picking up.
Where do Mexican immigrants work? Pretty much everywhere, but especially:
- Construction sites and agricultural fields across the country
- Small businesses (Mexican entrepreneurs add billions to the economy every year)
- Service industries, manufacturing, and transportation
And get this: when Mexican immigrants do decide to become U.S. citizens, they typically wait the longest before applying. We’re talking almost 11 years as permanent residents on average. Compare that to immigrants from other countries who naturalize much faster.
India
India’s at number two now, and the growth has been pretty dramatic. There are about 3.2 million Indian-born people living in the U.S. as of mid-2023, and in some recent years, India has actually sent more new immigrants than Mexico.
In 2023, India was one of the top three countries for new arrivals. What makes Indian immigration different?
Education, mainly. Indian immigrants are significantly more likely to have college degrees, and often advanced degrees, compared to both other immigrants and Americans born here.
The H-1B visa tells a lot of the story. This is the visa program for “specialty occupations” (translation: jobs that need specific skills and education). Indian tech workers, engineers, and IT professionals make up a huge chunk of H-1B recipients every year.
You know that stereotype about Indian engineers in Silicon Valley? Well, it exists for a reason. But limiting Indian immigrants to just tech would be selling them short.
They’re also running hospitals as doctors, teaching at universities, starting businesses, and working in finance, pharmaceuticals, and pretty much every other high-skilled field you can think of.
The downside? The wait times are brutal. Because of per-country limits on green cards, some Indian immigrants wait years, sometimes over a decade, for permanent residency.
Nearly 1.5 million people of Asian descent are stuck in the family visa backlog, and Indians face some of the longest waits.
China
Coming in at number three is China, with roughly 3 million Chinese-born residents in America. (This includes Hong Kong and Macau, but not Taiwan. They count separately for statistical purposes.)
Chinese immigration has a complicated history here. From the 1800s gold rush to the Chinese Exclusion Act (one of the darker chapters of U.S. immigration policy), to now being one of the biggest sending countries.
In 2022, around 90,000 Chinese nationals came as new immigrants, and the numbers stayed pretty solid through 2024.
Here’s where it gets bureaucratic: Chinese nationals need to jump through an extra hoop that most other immigrants don’t. Beyond getting a visa, anyone with a 10-year B1/B2 visitor visa has to register with something called the EVUS. That’s the Electronic Visa Update System.
The EVUS thing started in 2016. Basically, Chinese passport holders need to go online and update their info every two years (or whenever they get a new passport).
And here’s the kicker: without registration for the US visa EVUS, you literally cannot board a plane to the US. Your visa alone isn’t enough.
Why just China? Good question. It came out of a reciprocal agreement when both countries started issuing 10-year visitor visas.
The U.S. government says it might expand EVUS to other countries eventually, but for now, it’s only the Chinese who deal with this extra step.
Chinese immigrants show up big in American universities. Many come as students first, then switch to work visas and eventually get green cards. Once they do get permanent residency, they typically wait about eight years before naturalizing.
Philippines
At number four, we’ve got the Philippines with around 2.1 million Filipino immigrants in the U.S. The connection between the Philippines and America goes way back. We’re talking over a century of shared history.
What stands out about Filipino immigration is how steady it is. Year after year, the Philippines consistently ranks in the top countries for new green cards, about 4% of all new permanent residents.
They also show up big in naturalization numbers. In 2024, the Philippines was one of the top five countries for people becoming U.S. citizens.
But if there’s one sector where Filipino immigrants have really left their mark, it’s healthcare. I’m not exaggerating when I say you’ll find Filipino nurses, doctors, and medical technicians in pretty much every major hospital system across America.
The Philippines has been filling critical gaps in U.S. healthcare for decades.
Family reunification drives a lot of the continued immigration. People bringing over their relatives once they’re established here. The problem is the wait times are ridiculous.
The Philippines has one of the longest family visa backlogs of any Asian country. Some categories have people waiting 10+ years just to bring family members over legally.
Cuba
Cuba rounds out the top five with about 1.7 million Cuban-born people in the U.S. Smaller numbers than the others, sure, but Cuban immigration tells a unique story.
2023 was a big year for Cuban arrivals. Cuba was actually the number two country for new immigrants that year, with roughly 57,000 people coming over. That was a major spike. Then 2024 hit, and the numbers dropped hard because of policy changes.
Cuban immigration has always been treated differently than immigration from other places, mostly because of politics and the decades-long tension between Washington and Havana.
A lot of Cubans have come through humanitarian programs over the years, though some of those programs got shut down in 2025.
Geography matters here too. The vast majority of Cuban Americans live in Florida, especially Miami. If you’ve ever been to Miami, you know.
Cuban culture is absolutely woven into the city’s identity. Cuban Americans have become major players in South Florida’s politics and economy.
One thing worth noting: compared to other immigrant groups, Cubans tend to naturalize relatively quickly once they get their green cards.
What’s Happening Now
2025 has been a weird year for immigration. We saw something that hasn’t happened since the 1960s. The immigrant population actually shrunk. Between January and June, the number dropped by over a million people.
Why? A combination of things. Asylum restrictions that started under Biden in mid-2024. Then the Trump administration came back in January 2025 and implemented a bunch of executive orders focused on deportation and enforcement. The full impact is still playing out, but the trend is clear.
Even with all that, these five countries (Mexico, India, China, Philippines, and Cuba) still represent the core of American immigration. They make up a huge chunk of the 50+ million immigrants who’ve chosen to build their lives here.
So what’s next? Honestly, 2026 is anybody’s guess. The Trump administration’s policies will keep shaping the numbers, probably pushing for more enforcement and tighter rules.
But here’s the reality: the fundamentals don’t change overnight. American companies still need workers. Families still want to be together. Universities still want international students.
The economic pull is real, and it’s not disappearing because of policy shifts. These five countries will likely stay at the top of the list, even if the overall numbers fluctuate. Because at the end of the day, people don’t stop dreaming about better opportunities.
Wrapping Up
Look, immigration is always going to be controversial in American politics. That’s nothing new. But understanding where people are actually coming from helps cut through some of the noise.
These five countries show the range of reasons people immigrate. Economic opportunity, family connections, education, escaping political situations. It’s all there.
Mexican workers keeping construction and agriculture moving. Indian engineers writing the code for the apps on your phone. Chinese students filling university classrooms. Filipino nurses taking care of patients. Cuban families rebuilding their lives.
The policies will keep changing depending on who’s in office. But the basic pull of America, the chance at something better, that’s not going anywhere. These immigration patterns prove it.