Filipino Americans: Fast Facts
- In 2022, Filipino Americans accounted for 1% of the total U.S. Population.
- The median household income of Filipino Americans is more than 50% of the national average.
- Filipino Americans have the highest percentage (27%) among Asian Americans of grandparents living with and caring for their grandchildren who are under 18 years of age.
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Based on the 2022 American Community Survey 1 year estimation, Filipino Americans (alone or in combination with one or more races) account for merely 1% of the total US population. However, they are the third largest Asian American group after Chinese and Asian Indian Americans. The subgroup of Filipino American older adults (defined as age 65 and over in this chapter) accounts for 13% of the total Filipino American population. An estimated 35.4% of Filipino American older adults are disabled. Filipino Americans are fairly widely dispersed in the United States. California holds the largest Filipino American settlement, followed by Hawaii, Nevada, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Washington State, and Virginia respectively (American Community Survey, United States Census Bureau 2022).
Between 1986 and 2006 the number of Filipino immigrants tripled, making them the second largest immigrant group in the US after Mexican immigrants. Roughly one-quarter of Filipino Americans reside in California. An estimated one third of Filipino immigrants in 2006 had limited English proficiency (Terrazas, 2008).
The median household income of Filipino Americans is $102,998 (US Census Bureau, 2021) and this is 50% more than the national average. The poverty rate of Filipino Americans is less than half that of the national total population.
The poverty rate among Filipino Americans aged 65 years and older is lower (7%) than that of the total US geriatric population (12%). It is also lower than the poverty rate of other elder Asian Americans with the exception of Japanese and Indonesian Americans (both also at 7%).
Among Asian Americans, Filipino American households have one of the highest proportions of owner-occupied homes (61%), only slightly lower than that of all US households (65.8%). A typical Filipino American household consists of 3 or more persons on average and only 14 percent are in non-family households. 34% of Filipino households are multi-generational. Filipino households are in the top 10 of the highest multi-generational household amongst Asian American families (tied for 6th with Vietnamese).
