Indian Americans surpass Chinese Americans as largest ‘Asian-alone’ group: US Census
By Ryan General
September 27, 2023
The rise of Indian Americans: Based on 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data, there were nearly 4.4 million Indian Americans in the country. The figure represents a remarkable 55% growth over the past decade.
Contributing factors: Sociologists attribute the growth to factors such as the tech boom and the introduction of the H1B visa program for high-skilled workers in the 1990s to this growth. Indian professionals, particularly engineers and computer scientists, flocked to the U.S., bringing their families with them. Among H1B petitioners, Indians accounted for a staggering 75%, while Chinese nationals constituted a mere 12%.
Larger multiracial context: The report also indicates that when accounting for individuals of mixed race or ethnicity, Chinese Americans still constitute the largest share of the country’s Asian population, totaling 5.2 million.
Other groups rise: While Indian Americans now lead the category, other South Asian groups have also witnessed rapid growth. The Nepalese population, for instance, saw a remarkable increase of over 250% between 2010 and 2020, driven in part by family sponsorships. Similarly, the Bangladeshi population grew by 85.4%, reflecting the changing face of Asian demographics in the United States.
Other Asian groups have also witnessed significant growth. The Filipino population, for instance, recorded an impressive 29.9% increase between 2010 and 2020, totaling 4,436,992 individuals. Vietnamese Americans saw a substantial 32% growth, reaching 2,293,392, while Korean Americans experienced a 16.6% increase, totaling 1,989,519. Japanese Americans, although registering a slight decline in their ‘alone’ population, saw a 20.6% growth in their ‘alone or in any combination’ population, reaching 1,586,652.
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