Facts about Indians in the U.S.: Pew Research Center

The highlights of the report/analysis shows :

1. That the Indian population has grown from 1.8 million in the year 2000 to to 3.1 million in 2023, a 174 percent increase in nearly 2 decades.
2. There has been a decline in the proportion of Indian immigrants in the total population of this ancestry, from 73 percent in 2000 to 66 percent in 2023.
3. At the same time, there’s been an increase in the number of Indian immigrants in the country from 1.3 million in 2000 to 3.2 million in 2023.
4. Within the Indian community, 51 percent are naturalized citizens while 60 percent have lived here for more than 10 years.

5. On the metrics of educational levels, 77 percent of Indian Americans 25 and older have bachelors degrees or advanced degrees, compared to Asian Americans as a whole where 56 percent have graduate or advanced degrees.

6. Compared to other Asians, English proficiency is much higher within the Indian community, with 84% of Indians ages 5 and older speaking the language proficiently. Comparatively, 74 percent of Asian Americans speak English proficiently. Interestingly, looking at the other major languages spoken by Indian Americans at home, 18 percent speak Hindi, 11 percent Telugu, 10 percent Gujarati, and 7 percent Tamil.

7. California houses the largest concentration of Indians, with 960,000 of the nearly 5 million in the country. Texas ranks second with 570,000; New Jersey with 440,000, New York with 390, 000 and Illinois with 270,000. Interestingly, a few metropolitan areas have the largest Indian populations – New York – 710,000; Dallas-270,000; and San Francisco-260,000.

8. On the household median annual income, Indians have usually outshone the general American average. The Pew Research figures show the median annual income of Indian-headed households was $151,200 in 2023, much higher than Asian-headed households which was $105,600.

Individual annual personal earnings showed a similar trend —  Indian Americans ages 16 and older was $85,300 in 2023, higher than among Asians overall ($52,400).

9. On the religion front, 48 percent of Indian adults are Hindu; 15 percent are Christian, and 15 percent are unaffiliated. The unaffiliated group includes those who consider themselves atheist or agnostic or no religion in particular.

10. Poverty in the Indian community stood at 6 percent compared to 10 percent among Asians.  

(The above points are taken from the article by Carolyne Im carried on pewresearch.org on May 1, 2025)