By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : Indian Americans are the highest-income and best-educated people in the United States and the third largest among Asian Americans who have surpassed Latinos as the fastest-growing racial group, according to a new survey.
Asians as a whole too are better educated and earn more than the general US population, according to the Pew Research Centre report on “The rose of Asian Americans” released Tuesday.
Indians, who now number 3.18 millions, the third largest after the Chinese (4 million) and the Filipinos (3.4 million) have a median household annual income of $88,000, much higher than for all Asians ($66,000) and all US households ($49,800).
Median annual personal earnings for Indian-American full-time, year-round workers are $65,000, significantly higher than for all Asian Americans ($48,000) as well as for all US adults ($40,000).
Seven-in-ten (70 percent) Indian Americans ages 25 and older, have obtained at least a bachelor’s degree; this is higher than the Asian-American share (49 percent) and much higher than the national share (28 percent), the survey found.
More than half of Indian Americans (57 percent) own a home, compared with 58 percent of Asian Americans overall and 65 percent of the US population overall.
The share of adult Indian Americans who live in poverty is 9 percent, lower than the rate for all Asian Americans (12 percent) as well as the national rate (13 percent).
Indian Americans stand out from most other US Asian groups in the personal importance they place on parenting; 78 percent of Indian Americans say being a good parent is one of the most important things to them personally.
Indian Americans are among the most likely to say that the strength of family ties is better in their country of origin (69 percent) than in the US (8 percent).
Compared with other US Asian groups, Indian Americans are the most likely to identify with the Democratic Party; 65 percent are Democrats or lean to the Democrats, 18 percent are Republican or lean to the Republicans, the Pew Survey found.
And 65 percent of Indian Americans approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance, while 22 percent disapprove.
Key Findings:
Indian Americans are more evenly spread out than other Asian Americans. About 24 percent of adult Indian Americans live in the West, compared with 47 percent of Asian Americans and 23 percent of the US population overall.
More than three-in-ten (31 percent) Indian Americans live in the Northeast, 29 percent live in the South, and the rest (17 percent) live in the Midwest.
Nearly nine-in-ten (87 percent) adult Indian Americans in the United States are foreign born, compared with about 74 percent of adult Asian Americans and 16 percent of the adult US population overall.
More than half of Indian-American adults are US citizens (56 percent), lower than the share among overall adult Asian population (70 percent) as well as the national share (91 percent).
More than three-quarters of Indian Americans (76 percent) speak English proficiently, compared with 63 percent of all Asian Americans and 90 percent of the US population overall.
The median age of adult Indian Americans is 37, lower than for adult Asian Americans (41) and the national median (45).
More than seven-in-ten (71 percent) adult Indian Americans are married, a share significantly higher than for all Asian Americans (59 percent) and for the nation (51 percent).
The share of unmarried mothers was much lower among Indian Americans (2.3 percent) than among all Asian Americans (15 percent) and the population overall (37 percent).
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])