Demography

From The Peopling of New York City: Indian Communities

Asian-Indians in America

America has a quickly growing Asian Indian population. From 1990 to 2000, Asian-Indians were the fastest growing US ethnic group. According to the 2007 American Community Survey, there are roughly 2.57 million people of Indian descent living in the United States. The Asian Indian population in the United States is quickly growing, having risen from 1.6 million in 2000 to 2.5 million in 2007. New York State has the second highest Asian Indian population at 251,724.

Asian Indians in New York City

The New York area now has the largest Asian Indian population in the United States. The majority of these Indian immigrants live in the suburbs, away from New York City. According to the 1990 U.S. Bureau of the Census, there were 42,647 foreign born Indian residents in New York City. Of this group, 41,503 of these Indian residents arrived in America post-1964. These Indian immigrants epitomize the multi-ethic, multi-religious and multi-lingual society of India. There are Indian Americans from India, the United Kingdom, Africa, Guyana, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.

300px|This is a map that shows the distribution of Asian Indian citizens throughout New York City

Languages Spoken by Asian Indians

A table, based on 2000 US Census data, showing Hindi and Gujarathi speakers in New York's 5 boroughs

The Asian Indian immigrants in New York City speak many different languages reflecting the diverse parts of India and the regions they originated from. These languages include: Hindi (the official language of India and the most commonly spoken by Asian Indian immigrants), Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Urdu, and Kashmiri.

An extremely high number of Asian Indian immigrants speak English, close to 70%.

Asian Indian Immigrants in the American Education System and Workforce

Asian Indians pursue courses of study which are directly related to employment. Asian Indians are often found in science, computing, business, finance, law, medicine and technological fields. Asian Indian immigrants are able to prosper immediately because of their levels of education and their knowledge of English, which have allowed them to earn a high income and become homeowners. More than 64% of Asian Indian immigrants have at least a bachelor's degree and 12.5% have an advanced degree, the highest among all racial/ethnic groups in America. Asian Indians also have the highest median personal income at $26,000 and highest family income at $69,740. Furthermore, Asian Indian immigrants also have the highest employment rate at 71%. Asian Indian immigrants in America have a wide variety of jobs.

These are some Bengali books that are available at the International Resource Centre at the Flushing branch of the Queens Public Library. The International Resource Centre reflects the diversity of its customers by the wide selection of languages available.

This plaque identifies the languages available on one particular rack at the Queens Public Library in Flushing.