How many businesses do Indian Americans own, and how big are they?

The official count

The Census Bureau's Annual Business Survey (ABS) is the authoritative source on business ownership by race, and it breaks out Asian Indian owners separately. In 2022, the latest detailed year, Asian Indian Americans owned 210,291 employer firms, meaning businesses with at least one paid employee¹. That is about a third of the 650,680 Asian-owned employer firms in the US and more than any other Asian American group; Chinese American owners were next with 151,444^1,2.

Those firms reported $449.1 billion in receipts, employed 1,976,437 people and paid $94.5 billion in annual payroll¹. Asian Indian-owned businesses make up about 3.6% of all US employer firms (our calculation from the ABS), while people who identify as Asian Indian alone are about 1.5% of the US population, at 5.09 million in 2024^1,3.

Employer firms, 2022	Firms	Receipts	Employees
Asian Indian-owned	210,291	$449.1B	1,976,437
Chinese-owned	151,444	$285.0B	1,179,985
Korean-owned	87,354	$161.0B	643,624
All Asian-owned	650,680	$1.19T	5,368,251

Source: US Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey 2022¹. Firms whose owners identify with more than one group are counted in each.

What HeyAlbert data shows

How big are they?

Most Indian American-owned firms are small or mid-sized operating businesses rather than large corporations. On the ABS figures, the average Asian Indian-owned employer firm had about $2.1 million in receipts and 9 employees, compared with about $1.8 million and 8 employees for Asian-owned firms overall (our calculations from the ABS totals)¹. Payroll averaged roughly $450,000 per Asian Indian-owned firm, or about $47,800 per employee (our calculations)¹. Averages for all US firms are not comparable because they include the largest public companies.

Receipts are revenue, not profit or owner wealth. But an operating business with millions in annual sales, often paired with the real estate it occupies, is one of the most common foundations of family wealth, a theme explored in what role family businesses play in Indian American wealth creation.

Which industries?

Ownership is concentrated in four sectors that together account for about 80% of Asian Indian-owned employer firms (our calculation)¹:

Sector	Asian Indian-owned firms	Receipts	Share of all US firms in sector
Retail trade	57,877	$132.2B	9.3%
Accommodation and food services	44,440	$57.4B	8.0%
Professional, scientific and technical services	35,945	$80.2B	4.3%
Health care and social assistance	29,371	$39.3B	4.4%

Source: Census ABS 2022¹; shares are our calculations.

• Retail, including gas stations and convenience stores, is the single largest category; roughly one in eleven US retail employer firms is Asian Indian-owned. See how Indian American franchise and convenience store owners build wealth.
• Accommodation and food services covers hotels and motels, where Indian American ownership is famously concentrated; see how many US hotels Indian Americans own. With 605,446 employees, it is the largest employer among these sectors¹.
• Professional and technical services includes IT consulting, engineering and accounting firms, discussed in Indian American IT services and staffing firms.
• Health care reflects physician practices and other clinics; see how many US doctors are of Indian origin.

Wholesale and manufacturing: fewer firms, bigger tickets

Some sectors have far fewer Indian American owners but larger firms. Asian Indian-owned wholesale businesses numbered 6,335 yet reported $52.2 billion in receipts, and 2,327 manufacturing firms reported $18.7 billion, averaging roughly $8 million per firm in each sector (our calculations)¹. Real estate and rental firms numbered 4,912¹, though much Indian American property wealth is held through hotel and investment entities classified elsewhere; see Indian American real estate developers.

What drives the high rate of ownership

Several factors stand out in the research: high education and professional credentials that support practices and consulting firms; family networks that pool capital and labor, especially in hotels and retail; and immigrant entrepreneurship more broadly. Business income is one reason household incomes are high: Asian Indian households had a median income of $165,721 in 2024, against $81,604 for all US households³. For the bigger picture, see how much Indian Americans contribute to the US economy.

Limits of the data

The ABS covers employer firms; it is separate from the far larger number of businesses with no employees, such as sole consultants. It classifies firms by the race of owners holding a majority stake, and counts a firm in more than one group when owners report multiple races¹. Publicly traded companies founded or led by Indian Americans are generally not classifiable by owner race and fall outside these figures.