Are Indian Americans the richest ethnic group in the US?

The short answer: highest by income

The best public measure for comparing groups is the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). In the 2024 one-year data, the most recent available as of October 2026, households with an Asian Indian householder had a median income of $165,721¹. The figure for all US households was $81,604², so the typical Indian American household earned roughly twice as much as the typical American household.

That is the top figure among the roughly 500 race, Hispanic-origin, ancestry and birthplace groups the Census Bureau profiles nationally in its Selected Population Profiles. The only higher line in that table is a subset of the same community: households headed by someone born in India¹. Pew Research Center, working from a different cut of the ACS (2021–23, alone or in combination), reached the same conclusion with a median of $151,200 in 2023³. For a year-by-year view of the income numbers, see our breakdown of Indian American median household income.

What HeyAlbert data shows

How Indian Americans compare with other groups

Median household income by group, ACS 2024 one-year estimates^1,2:

Group (householder)	Median household income
Asian Indian alone	$165,721
Taiwanese alone	$144,743
Filipino alone	$117,783
Asian alone (all origins)	$117,289
Pakistani alone	$111,719
Chinese alone	$111,125
White alone, not Hispanic	$87,572
All US households	$81,604
Hispanic or Latino (any race)	$72,574
Black alone	$56,706

The ranking depends a little on the measure. Per capita income adjusts for household size, and on that basis Taiwanese Americans ($83,810) edge out Asian Indians ($76,212), partly because Indian American households are larger on average (2.85 people versus 2.39)¹. We look at these trade-offs in more detail in how Indian American income and wealth compare with other groups.

What about wealth and net worth?

Income is not wealth. Net worth, meaning assets minus debts, builds over decades and depends on inheritance, home equity and investment returns as well as pay. Here the data is much thinner, because the main national wealth surveys do not publish results for Indian Americans as a separate group.

What exists points the same way. The Urban Institute's analysis of the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances found that Asian American households had a median net worth of $535,400, close to double that of white households⁴. The Census Bureau's own wealth survey found that 27.5% of non-Hispanic Asian households held $1 million or more in wealth at the end of 2023, compared with 22.2% of non-Hispanic white households⁶. One of the few studies to measure Indian Americans directly, a 2016 report on the Los Angeles area, estimated median Asian Indian household wealth at $460,000, against $355,000 for white households⁵. Our guide to Indian American household net worth sets out what these surveys can and cannot tell you.

Why the gap exists

The evidence points mostly to who immigrated, not to anything innate. About 69% of Asian Indians in the US were born abroad¹, and US immigration rules have favored highly educated applicants. Indian nationals received 71% of all H-1B visas for skilled workers in fiscal 2024⁷. That selection shows up in education: 78.8% of Asian Indian adults aged 25 and over hold at least a bachelor's degree and 46.4% hold a graduate or professional degree, compared with 36.8% and 14.7% of all US adults¹. It also shows up in jobs: 75.7% of employed Asian Indians work in management, business, science and arts occupations, versus 43.5% of all workers¹.

Household structure adds to the picture. Asian Indian households are more likely to be married couples (69.7% versus 46.7% nationally), so more households have two earners¹. We look at each driver in why Indian Americans are wealthier than the average American, and at the role of degrees in Indian American education levels.

What the averages hide

A high median does not mean everyone is affluent. The Asian Indian poverty rate was 6.7% in 2024, lower than the national 12.1% but still hundreds of thousands of people¹. Half of Asian Indian immigrants arrived in 2010 or later¹, and newer arrivals, students and people on temporary visas often earn far less than long-settled professionals. Pew's work on income inequality found that Indian Americans rank highest among Asian origin groups at both the bottom tenth and the top tenth of the income ladder, but that the gap between those two points has widened since 1980⁸. For the full spread, see how income is distributed among Indian Americans.

Bottom line

On the measure most people mean, median household income, Indian Americans are the highest-earning ethnic group in the United States, and by a wide margin. On wealth, the best available evidence puts them near the top too, though no official survey yet publishes a precise national figure for the group. For the people at the very top of the distribution, see our research on Indian American millionaires and billionaires.