South Asian Americans


South Asian Americans are Americans of South Asian ancestry. The term refers to those who can trace back their heritage to South Asia, which includes the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives. The South Asian American diaspora also includes generations of South Asians from other areas in the world who then moved to the United States, areas such as Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Suriname, other parts of the Caribbean. In the United States census, they are a subcategory of Asian Americans, although individual racial classification is based on self-identification and the categorization is "not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically".

Background

History

In the United States, South Asian Americans have had a presence since the 1700s, emigrating from British India. Classically, they were known as East Indians or Hindoos in North America to differentiate them from the Native Americans, who were also known as Indians, as well as from Black West Indians. With the arrival of immigrants from Bengal and Punjab, their population increased significantly in the 1800s. Since interracial marriage with white persons was illegal and South Asian immigrant men were unable to bring over wives from their home countries, Hindu and Muslim South Asian immigrant men married Catholic Mexican women.

Identification

Most Indian Americans do not identify as South Asian American or Asian American, raising concerns for the viability of it as a classification. The term "South Asia" is considered synonymous to the Indian subcontinent. According to a 2021 survey, just 10% of Indian Americans identified as "South Asian American", with "Indian" and "Indian American" making up the majority at 68%. This further breaks down by differing religious identities, just 5% of Hindus of Indian descent in America identify as "South Asian", whereas 27% of Muslims of Indian descent in America identify as "South Asian". Indian Americans who were Christians are more than twice as likely to identify as "American" than Hindus of Indian descent.

Demographics

South Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing groups in the United States, increasing in population from 2.2 million to 4.9 million from 2000 to 2015. Around one third of the group lives in the Southern United States, with the population nearly tripling in the South between 2000 and 2017. According to the US census, between 2000 and 2018 the Indian American population grew by nearly 150 percent and had a median income of $100,000 in 2015.
Following is the list of South Asian diasporas living in the U.S. arranged according to their 2017 population estimated by the US Census Bureau.
South Asians are in the highest concentration in the New York City metropolitan area, with other significant concentrations in California, Texas, and Illinois. As of 2012 the metropolitan areas with the largest South Asian populations are New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston. The states containing the fastest growing metro areas with 5,000 or more South Asians are Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.

Religion

Religion remains a cornerstone for identity amongst South Asian Americans. Amongst South Asians, Hinduism and Islam are the most prominent. 48% to 54% of Indian Americans identify as Hindu and 60% of Pakistani-Bangladeshi Americans follow Islam.

Societal involvement

Government and politics

After July 2, 1946, under the Luce–Celler Act, Indians were permitted to hold citizenship in the United States. The Act allowed a quota of 100 immigrants per year from India and allowed Indian nationals who were already residing in the US to become naturalized.
In 1957, Dalip Singh Saund of California became the first Asian American in the United States House of Representatives. In 2017, Ravi Bhalla became the mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, making him the first Sikh to be elected to the position. In the same year, Kamala Harris became a US Senator from California.
In 2010, Nikki Haley ran for governor of South Carolina. When she took office in 2011, she made history as the first woman and the first person of an ethnic minority to hold the governorship. During her first term South Carolina's economy grew steadily as the jobless rate fell, prompting her reelection in 2014. In November 2016, then President-elect Trump selected her to serve as the US ambassador to the United Nations. She left this office in December 2018. In 2023, she announced that she was running for president in 2024, saying it was "time for a new generation".
In 2019, South Asian Americans were typically enrolled as Democrats. In September 2019, 50,000 Indian Americans gathered in Houston, Texas to listen to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The event, entitled "Howdy, Modi!" was also attended by then President Trump. This was the largest-ever gathering with a foreign political leader in the United States.
In a study in 2020, Indian Americans strongly identified with the Democratic Party and did not show a strong shift to the Republican Party. For the 2020 election, a study showed that 72% of registered Indian American voters planned on voting for Biden and the Democratic Party.
In 2020, Kamala Harris became the Democratic vice presidential nominee in the 2020 presidential election, when Joe Biden chose her as his running mate, making her the first African American and South Asian American vice presidential running mate on a major party ticket. The election was won by Joe Biden making Harris the first female and first African American and South Asian American to be held at such a high office.
Zohran Mamdani won the November 4, 2025 New York City mayoral election with 50.4% of the vote, defeating Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa. At age 34, he became the city’s first Indian-origin, first South Asian, and first Muslim mayor. He ran on a bold progressive platform focused on affordability: rent freezes, free buses, higher minimum wage, and higher taxes on the wealthy.

News media

is a correspondent and substitute anchor for the PBS NewsHour and Hari Sreenivasan is a correspondent for the NewsHour and the weekend anchor for the NewsHour. Fareed Zakaria has been a columnist for Newsweek, editor of Newsweek International, and an editor at large of Time. Kiran Chetry, a former CNN newsreader is South Asian through her father's side. Sree Sreenivasan is a journalist and co-founder of SAJA. He is also a visiting professor at Stony Brook University School of Journalism in New York.

Education

South Asian Americans are often over-represented as university graduates in US census data. Indians ages 25 and older have the highest levels of education among Asian Americans in the US. As of 2019, over 75% of Indians ages 25 and older held bachelors and higher level degrees. In contrast, only 15% of Burmese Americans are likely to hold college degrees. In 2021, in Fairfax County, Virginia, a legal case has been filed by a group of Asian American parents against the school board in federal court for overhauling admission procedures which they claim now discriminates against Asian American students. The new policies have decreased Asian American representation at the prestigious Thomas Jefferson high school and a case is now pending if the new admission criteria are legal and indeed race-neutral as claimed by the school board.

Organizations

There are a number of organizations formed by and for the representation of South Asian Americans in a number of fields and industries, including in alphabetical order:
focuses on telling stories of the South Asian diaspora and global South Asians at large.
Shankar Vendantam founded and hosts the famous NPR podcast and radio show, Hidden Brain, which discusses various influences that can manipulate our brains with or without our awareness. podcast converses over the struggles and effects of living as an ABCD and how to balance these two identities and cultures more easily. South Asian Trailblazers is podcast by Simi Shah that examines the careers and journeys of South Asian American leaders and entrepreneurs in various sectors. The Woke Desi podcast discusses various topics familiar to South Asians growing up in the United States and providers a forum where listeners can relate to stories and also become empowered to showcase their identity proudly. The Brown People We Know podcast sharing inspiring interviews with South Asians who have nontraditional life journeys and experiences. South Asian Stories is a podcast that interviews South Asians from around the world, from various walks of life, to discuss their identities, life journeys, failures and successes. Chaat Room, a podcast started by Brown Girl Magazine, recognizes South Asians in Hollywood.
Brown Girl Magazine is an online publication, founded by Trisha Sakhuja-Walia, to give representation to South Asian American writers and particularly South Asian American women, to write their stories and to build a community of empowerment through storytelling and dialogues.