Immigrants make up a growing portion of the population in 46 states and the District of Columbia. There are currently more than 35 million immigrants in the United States, comprising 12.4 percent of the population. That’s an increase from 11.1 percent in 2001.

Jeff Passel, a research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center told the New York Times that the report’s findings are part of “a pattern that we first began to see 10 or 15 years ago. But instead of being confined to areas like the Southeast, it’s beginning to spill over into some Midwestern states, like Indiana and Ohio. It’s even moving up into New England.”

While the largest number of immigrants live in California, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois, they are settling in many other states throughout the country. Indiana, for example, saw a 34 percent increase; South Dakota, 44 percent; Delaware, 32 percent; Missouri, 31 percent; Colorado, 28 percent; and New Hampshire, 26 percent. South Carolina’s immigrant population has grown by 47 percent since 2000, more than any other state. The number of Hispanics living in Arkansas increased by 48 percent.

According to the survey, immigrants in U.S. households rose 16 percent over the past five years, with the largest proportion of new arrivals coming from Mexico. In 2005, nearly 11 million immigrants living in the United States were born in Mexico—a 21 percent increase from five years earlier. By way of comparison, nearly 1.8 million were born in China and 1.4 million in India.

“It’s a continuation of the Mexicanization of U.S. immigration,” Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Times in describing the newly released figures. “You would expect Mexicans to be increasing their share in places like Georgia and North Carolina, which already saw some increases, but they’ve also increased their share of the population, and quite dramatically, in states like Michigan, Delaware, and Montana.”

Out of the U.S. population of nearly 300 million, the census reports that some 52 million speak a language other than English. From 1990 to 2000 the foreign-born population in the United States rose to 31.1 million from 18.8 million. This “blazing pace of immigration,” noted the Times, continues into the first half of the current decade.
 
 
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