Indian Americans are the second-highest population of Asians in the U.S., revealed the Pew Research Center in a report released May 22.
Asian Americans overall are the fastest-growing minority population in the U.S., with some Asian American minorities almost doubling their numbers over the past 15 years. The Indian American population rose from two million to almost four million in the years between 2000 and 2015, according to Pew data.
There are now 20 million Asian Americans in the U.S., about six percent of the overall population of 327 million. Chinese Americans represent 23 percent of the Asian American population — the highest percentage — while Indian Americans make up 19 percent. Pakistani Americans make up about two percent of Asian Americans living in the U.S., while Sri Lankan Americans, Nepali Americans, and Bangladeshi Americans each make up less than one percent.
Indian Americans have the highest level of education among Asian Americans: 72 percent hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. Collectively, about half of Asian Americans possess a bachelor’s degree, according to the report, which also stated that a large number of Indian immigrants already had a bachelor’s degree when they arrived in the U.S.
Indian Americans also had the highest level of income amongst Asian Americans. Average household income for Asian Americans overall was $73,000 in 2015, according to the Pew report.
Indian American households had average income levels of $100,000. Filipino American households have the second-highest income levels at $80,000. Sri Lankan and Japanese American households vied for third place with average household incomes of $74,000.
But South Asian Americans also represented some of the lowest levels of household incomes among Asian Americans: Nepali American households live on an average of $44,000 per year, while Burmese Americans live on $36,000 per year. Data was not shown for Pakistani and Bangladeshi American households.
More than seven percent of Indian Americans live in poverty, said the report.
Interestingly, Indian immigrants fare better in income levels than second generation Indian Americans, according to the Pew report. First generation Indian Americans have household incomes of $100,001, with personal incomes averaging $72,000 for full-time workers.
Second generation Indian Americans have a median annual household income of $85,000 and personal incomes of $62,000 for full-time workers.
More than two-thirds of Indian Americans are foreign born; they also have lower naturalization rates, compared with other Asian American minorities.
“Significant differences exist by income, education and other characteristics among the nation’s largest 19 Asian origin groups,†wrote the report’s authors: Abby Budiman, Anthony Cilluffo and Neil Ruiz. “These differences have been central to debates about how much data governments, colleges and other groups should collect about Asian origin groups, and whether it should be used to shape policies.â€