Indian (Asian) Americans

Immigration and Demographic Trends

The immigration stream has been steady, especially in recent decades. The Indian American population is especially densely concentrated in the northeast, with the New York-Newark-Bridgeport statistical area accounting for 573,329 Indian Americans. The San Francisco area, though considerably smaller, has the same percentage of Indian Americans as the New York area: 2.8 percent. The largest Indian American population by percentage is the San Jose, California, metropolitan area; 117,711 of the area's 1.8 million residents are Indian American, a 6.4 percent share. Outside those centers, Indian Americans are well distributed in the country's urban centers: There are large Indian populations in Los Angeles; Chicago; Dallas; Philadelphia; Houston; Washington, D.C.; Miami; Boston; Detroit; Phoenix; Seattle; Minneapolis; San Diego; St Louis; Tampa; Baltimore; Denver; Pittsburgh; Portland; and Orlando.

Transcript

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The 2010 census revealed some trends in Indian American demographics. Although Indian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country, with an annual growth rate of 10.5 percent, the growth had been especially strong in Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky—all of which saw more than 80 percent growth from 2000 to 2010—and in California, with a 68 percent growth in that period. In New York City, the Indian American population grew at twice the rate of the general population.

Indian Americans are generally more prosperous than the average American and are better [Page 1161]educated; the median income of Indian American families in 2010 was $69,470, compared to the national median of $38,885. About 10 percent of physicians are Indian American, despite the ethnicity making up less than 1 percent of the general population; Indian Americans also make up 7 percent of the country's information technology workers, 3 percent of its engineers, and 8 percent of its surgeons. About two-thirds of Indian Americans over 25 have completed college, more than twice the percentage of white college graduates. There are more than 200,000 Indian American millionaires.

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