Indian Immigrants in the United States April 15, 2026 Spotlight By Kyung Ju Lee and Jeanne Batalova...
A family takes a photo in Washington, DC. (Photo: iStock.com/Coast-to-Coast)
Indian immigrants began arriving in the United States in notable numbers in the early 19th century, when workers from the Punjab region settled primarily in California to work in agriculture, lumber, and railroad construction. Although their numbers remained relatively modest compared to European arrivals, Indian and other non-European immigrants faced growing political opposition through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, culminating in restrictions such as the Immigration Act of 1917, which effectively banned immigration from most of the Asia-Pacific region. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 reversed course, abolishing national-origin quotas and opening pathways through family reunification and employment-based visas for skilled professionals. In the wake of passage of this law, the Indian immigrant population grew rapidly, roughly doubling each decade between 1960 and 1990.
Today, approximately 3.2 million Indian immigrants reside in the United States, comprising 6 percent of the total foreign-born population of 50.2 million people. Immigrants from India rank as the second largest immigrant group in the country, after Mexicans.
Indian immigrants tend to have considerably higher levels of education than both the overall immigrant population and the U.S. born, particularly at the advanced degree level. Their prominence in high-skilled sectors is reflected in visa data: In fiscal year (FY) 2024, Indian nationals received 71 percent of all H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. And in the 2024-25 academic year, India was the leading source of international students in the United States, most of whom were enrolled in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) program. Partly because of their prominence in STEM programs, Indian nationals have been particularly affected by the Trump administration’s tightened immigration policies, including imposition of a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions, enhanced vetting for H-1B and H-4 dependent visa applicants and for international students, and significantly longer wait times for in-person visa interviews.
This Spotlight provides an overview of various demographic characteristics of Indian immigrants in the United States, including their U.S. destinations, top job sectors, educational attainment, age, and English language proficiency.
Click on the bullet points below for more information:
Definitions
The U.S. Census Bureau defines the “foreign born” as individuals without U.S. citizenship at birth. The foreign-born population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees, legal nonimmigrants (including those on student, work, or other temporary visas), and persons residing in the country without authorization.
The terms “foreign born” and “immigrant” are used interchangeably and refer to those who were born in another country and later migrated to the United States.
- Size of Immigrant Population over Time
- Destination by State and Key Cities
- English Proficiency
- Age, Education, and Employment
- Income and Poverty
- Immigration Pathways and Naturalization
- Unauthorized Immigrant Population
- Health Coverage
- Diaspora
- Top Global Destinations
- Remittances
Size of Immigrant Population over Time
Most immigration of Indians to the United States has occurred over the past 25 years. The Indian immigrant population increased fivefold from 1980 to 2000 and then tripled from 2000 to 2024 (see Figure 1). The rate of growth for this population has been significantly higher than that of the overall foreign-born population in the United States, increasing 78 percent from 2010 to 2024, triple the 26 percent for all immigrants.
Figure 1. Indian Immigrant Population in the United States, 1980-2024
Sources: Data from U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 and 2024 American Community Surveys (ACS), and Campbell J. Gibson and Kay Jung, "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850-2000" (Working Paper no. 81, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, February 2006), available online.
Destination by State and Key Cities
One in five Indian immigrants resided in California as of the 2020-24 period, followed by Texas (12 percent), New Jersey (10 percent), Illinois (6 percent), and New York (5 percent). Together, these states were home to 53 percent of all Indian immigrants. Santa Clara County, California; Alameda County, California; Middlesex County, New Jersey; and King County, Washington were the top four counties of residence, together accounting for 15 percent of all Indian immigrants in the United States.
Click here for an interactive map highlighting the states and counties with the most immigrants from India or another country.
The top cities for Indian immigrants were the greater New York, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, and San Jose metropolitan areas. About 35 percent of all Indian immigrants lived in one of these five cities as of 2020-24 (see Figure 2). Indian immigrants made up more than 7 percent of San Jose metro area residents and more than 3 percent of the San Francisco area population.
Figure 2. Top Metropolitan Destinations for Indian Immigrants in the United States, 2020-24
Notes: Pooled 2020-24 ACS data were used to get statistically valid estimates at the metropolitan statistical-area level for smaller-population geographies. Not shown are the populations in Alaska and Hawaii, which are small in size. For details, visit MPI’s Migration Data Hub for an interactive map showing geographic distribution of immigrants by metro area, available online.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from U.S. Census Bureau’s pooled 2020-24 ACS.
Click here for an interactive map that highlights the metro areas with the most immigrants from India or another country.
Indian immigrants are much more likely to be proficient in English than the overall foreign-born population. In 2024, 21 percent of Indian immigrants ages 5 and over reported speaking English less than “very well,” compared to 47 percent of all immigrants.
At the same time, just 12 percent of Indian immigrants spoke only English at home, versus 16 percent of all immigrants. Reflecting the linguistic diversity of India, these immigrants spoke a variety of languages at home, including Hindi (26 percent), Telugu (15 percent), Gujarati (10 percent), Tamil (9 percent), and Punjabi (8 percent).
Age, Education, and Employment
Indian immigrants tend to be younger than the overall foreign-born population but older than the U.S. born. Their median age was 42 in 2024, compared to 47 for all immigrants and 37 for the native-born population. This is due to the high number of working-age adults: 81 percent of Indian immigrants were ages 18 to 64, as compared to 76 percent of the overall foreign-born population and 58 percent of the U.S. born (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. Age Distribution of the U.S. Population, by Origin, 2024
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 ACS.
Indian immigrant adults have much higher rates of educational attainment than both the native- and overall foreign-born populations. In 2024, 82 percent of Indian immigrants ages 25 and older reported having at least a bachelor’s degree, compared to 36 percent of all foreign-born and 37 percent of U.S.-born adults. Indians are also much more likely to hold graduate or professional degrees: 50 percent of Indian immigrants held an advanced degree, versus 16 percent of the total foreign-born and 14 percent of the U.S.-born populations.
Figure 4. Educational Attainment of the U.S. Population (ages 25 and older), by Origin, 2024
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2024 ACS.
Click here for data on immigrants’ educational attainment by country of origin and overall.
More than 363,000 international students from India were enrolled in U.S. higher education institutions during the 2024-25 school year, according to the Institute of International Education, more than any other country. Indians represented 31 percent of the nearly 1.2 million international students enrolled that school year. The next largest countries of origin were China, at 265,900 students, and South Korea, at 42,300. Additionally, Indian nationals were by far the main recipients of approved H-1B petitions in FY 2024, with 71 percent (283,400) of all 399,400 approvals that year. The next largest groups were nationals of China (46,700, or 12 percent) and the Philippines (5,200, or 1 percent).
Indian immigrants participate in the labor force at higher rates than both the native and overall foreign-born populations. In 2024, 74 percent of Indian immigrants ages 16 and older were in the civilian labor force, compared to 63 percent of the U.S. born and 68 percent of all immigrants. Compared to these two groups, Indian immigrants were much more likely to work in the management, business, science, and arts occupations (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Employed Workers in the Civilian Labor Force (ages 16 and older), by Occupation and Origin, 2024
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 ACS.
On average, Indians have much higher incomes. In 2024, households headed by an Indian immigrant had a median annual income of $176,200, compared to $82,400 for all immigrant-led households and $81,400 for those led by the U.S. born.
Indian immigrants are also less likely to experience poverty. In 2024, Indian immigrants were roughly half as likely to be in poverty (6 percent) as immigrants overall (14 percent) or the U.S. born (12 percent). (The U.S. Census Bureau defines poverty as having an income below $32,130 for a family of four in 2024.)
Immigration Pathways and Naturalization
Indians are slightly less likely to be naturalized citizens than other immigrant groups, which may reflect the large numbers arriving on temporary visas and their relative recency of arrival. About 47 percent of Indian immigrants were U.S. citizens in 2024, compared to 51 percent of all immigrants.
However, Indians are naturalizing at a relatively fast rate. Indians tended to spend six years as lawful permanent residents (LPRs, also known as green-card holders) before naturalizing as citizens, a shorter period than the 7.5-year median for immigrants overall as of FY 2024. That year, 6 percent of all immigrants who received U.S. citizenship were Indian, the second largest group after Mexicans (13 percent).
More than half of Indian immigrants residing in the United States in 2024 arrived after 2010, compared to 38 percent of the overall foreign-born population.
Figure 6. Indian and All Immigrants in the United States, by Period of Arrival, 2024
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 ACS.
India was the third largest country of origin for immigrants who obtained a green card in FY 2023, the most recent year for which data are available, after Mexico and Cuba. Of the nearly 1.2 million people receiving a green card that year, about 78,100 (7 percent) were from India. That year, 60 percent of Indians who received a green card did so either as an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen or green-card holder or as another family member of a citizen. At the same time, 37 percent of Indians obtained a green card through employment-based preferences, a share more than double that of all new LPRs.
Unauthorized Immigrant Population
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that approximately 199,000 (or 1.5 percent) of the 13.7 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States as of mid-2023 were from India. The country was the 11th largest origin for unauthorized immigrants.
Click here for MPI data on the unauthorized immigrant population as of mid-2023.
About 1,470 Indian immigrants as of September 2025 were beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary deportation relief and work authorization to unauthorized immigrants who arrived as children and met the program’s education and other eligibility criteria. This population represented a tiny share of all 505,900 active DACA recipients.
Click here to view the top origin countries of DACA recipients and their U.S. states of residence.
Indians have higher health insurance coverage rates than both the overall immigrant and U.S.-born populations. In 2024, just 4 percent of immigrants from India were uninsured, compared to 7 percent of the U.S. born and 18 percent of the overall foreign-born population. Indian immigrants were more likely to be covered by private health insurance than the overall foreign-born and U.S.-born populations, reflecting their strong labor force participation and employment in high-skilled jobs that often come with employer-provided health insurance (see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Health Coverage for Indian Immigrants, All Immigrants, and the U.S. Born, 2024
Note: The sum of shares by type of insurance is likely to be greater than 100 because people may have more than one type of insurance.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 ACS.
The Indian diaspora was comprised of approximately 5.8 million U.S. residents who were either born in India or reported Indian ancestry or origin, according to MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey. Of these individuals, around 55 percent were born in India, and the remainder were born in the United States or elsewhere. The Indian diaspora was the tenth largest in the country.
Click here to see estimates of the 35 largest diasporas groups in the United States in 2024.
India is the world’s largest country of emigration, with approximately 18.5 million Indians residing outside their country of birth, according to mid-2024 estimates by the United Nations Population Division. The top destination countries were the United Arab Emirates and the United States (3.2 million apiece), Saudi Arabia (2 million), Pakistan (1.6 million), and Kuwait (1.2 million).
Click here to view an interactive map showing where migrants from India and other countries have settled worldwide.
Migrants and other individuals worldwide sent approximately $129.1 billion in remittances via formal channels to India in 2024, a 55 percent increase from the nearly $83.1 billion received in 2020. The amount of money individuals remitted to India was nearly double the transfers to the second highest country, Mexico ($68.2 billion). Remittances represented about 3 percent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024.
Figure 8. Annual Remittance Flows to India, 2000-24
Note: Data for 2024 are an estimate.
Source: Dilip Ratha, Sonia Plaza, and Eung Ju Kim, “In 2024, Remittance Flows to Low- and Middle-Income Countries Are Expected to Reach $685 Billion, Larger than FDI and ODA Combined,” World Bank blog post, December 18, 2024, available online.
Click here to view an interactive chart showing annual remittances received and sent by India and other countries.
Sources
Batalova, Jeanne. 2025. International Students in the United States. Migration Information Source, July 24, 2025. Available online.
Chalana, Manish. 2021. Whither the “Hindoo Invasion”? South Asians in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, 1907–1930. International Journal of Regional and Local History 16 (1): 1-8. Available online.
Ferragamo, Mariel. 2026. A Guide to the Countries on Trump's Travel Ban List. Council on Foreign Relations. Updated January 14, 2026. Available online.
Gibson, Campbell J. and Kay Jung. 2006. Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-2000. Working Paper no. 81, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, February 2006. Available online.
Hackman, Michelle. 2025. U.S. Narrows Who Pays $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee. The Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2025. Available online.
Institute of International Education (IIE). N.d. International Students: All Places of Origin. Accessed April 03, 2026. Available online.
Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD)/World Bank Group. 2024. Remittances. September 18, 2024. Available online.
Ratha, Dilip, Sonia Plaza, and Eung Ju Kim. 2024. In 2024, Remittance Flows to Low- and Middle-Income Countries Are Expected to Reach $685 Billion, Larger than FDI and ODA Combined. World Bank blog post, December 18, 2024. Available online.
TOI World Desk. 2026. H-1B Visa Stamping Delays Continue in India, Interview Dates Now Being Deferred to 2027. Times of India, January 22, 2026. Available online.
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---. 2025. Count of Active DACA Recipients by Month of Current DACA Expiration as of September 30, 2025. Available online.
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U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian. N.d. Historical Highlights: Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Accessed April 3, 2026. Available online.
U.S. Labor Department, Bureau of Immigration. 1922. Immigration Laws. Act of February 5, 1917; and Acts Approved October 16, 1918; October 19, 1918; May 10, 1920; June 5, 1920; December 26, 1920, and May 19, 1921, as Amended, and Act May 26, 1922. Rules of May 1, 1917. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Available online.
U.S. State Department. 2025. Announcement of Expanded Screening and Vetting for H-1B and Dependent H-4 Visa Applicants. Updated December 3, 2025. Available online.