Survey Says Hindus Thrive in U.S. - India Real Time - WSJ
A study of the lifestyles and attitudes of Asian-Americans based on their religion has suggested that Indian-American Hindus are the most educated and best-paid group in the country.
“In terms of education and income, Hindus are at the top of the socioeconomic ladder – not only among Asian-American religious groups but also among all the largest U.S. religious groups,” the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, based in Washington, D.C., said in a report.
The researchers said it was the first comprehensive data collection from Hindus living in America, the vast majority of whom are of Indian descent.
Over half (51%) of Hindu Indian-American adults live in households earning at least $100,000 annually, compared with 34% of non-Hindu Indian-Americans, the study said.
Some commentators suggested that the prosperity of Hindus in the U.S. was a result of the success of higher caste Hindus in India who had moved abroad as highly skilled migrants.
But Mr. Lal pointed out that although Indians who came to America after visa reforms in 1965 did so to pursue higher education, they later brought their families who were not so well educated.
“These people go into other businesses such as owning motels,” he said.
“There might be eight to 10 family members who are actually working in the motel, many of them are not getting wages just board and lodging. These complications are not captured by grand statistics in this report,” Mr. Lal said.
“The study is giving the broad parameters of this community and trying to show that this is the genius of America – that people can come here from anywhere in the world and they can achieve,” he added.
Cary Funk, a senior researcher on the Pew Forum’s study, said it was a “representative survey of all U.S. Asians, which is pretty rare.”
“We were analyzing the results among the largest religious groups… With any group average it’s always true that there is a diversity of experiences behind the average,” Ms. Funk said.
“The report doesn’t try to go into details of the reasons [behind the statistics] but we do try to recognize some of the major factors, for instance selective immigration,” she added.
The proportion of Asian Americans in the U.S. has increased from 1% of the population in 1965 to 5.8% in 2011, according to the latest census.
Over half of Hindus surveyed (59%) regarded themselves as “very different” from the typical American, compared to 53% of all Asian Americans questioned.
The Pew Research Center found that Christians make up 42% of Asian Americans, followed by 26% who class themselves as unaffiliated (atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular).
Buddhists account for about one-in-seven Asian Americans (14%), followed by Hindus (10%), Muslims (4%) and Sikhs (1%), the study said. Followers of other religions make up 2% of U.S. Asians.
Hindus were the group with the highest retention rate - 81% of those raised as Hindus told the researchers they remained Hindus, 12% were now agnostic, atheist or nothing in particular, and the rest had switched religion or did not give a current faith.
Politically, a large majority of Hindus in the survey (72%) lent towards the Democratic Party compared to 52% of all Asian Americans.
The findings were based on telephone interviews with 3,511 Asian American adults across all states and included the six largest Asian groups in the U.S. population: Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.
Joanna Sugden is freelance journalist living in Delhi. Before coming to India in 2011 she spent four-and-a-half years as a reporter at The Times of London, covering religion and education. You can follow her on Twitter @jhsugden.
A study of the lifestyles and attitudes of Asian-Americans based on their religion has suggested that Indian-American Hindus are the most educated and best-paid group in the country.
“In terms of education and income, Hindus are at the top of the socioeconomic ladder – not only among Asian-American religious groups but also among all the largest U.S. religious groups,” the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, based in Washington, D.C., said in a report.
The researchers said it was the first comprehensive data collection from Hindus living in America, the vast majority of whom are of Indian descent.
Over half (51%) of Hindu Indian-American adults live in households earning at least $100,000 annually, compared with 34% of non-Hindu Indian-Americans, the study said.
Some commentators suggested that the prosperity of Hindus in the U.S. was a result of the success of higher caste Hindus in India who had moved abroad as highly skilled migrants.
But Mr. Lal pointed out that although Indians who came to America after visa reforms in 1965 did so to pursue higher education, they later brought their families who were not so well educated.
“These people go into other businesses such as owning motels,” he said.
“There might be eight to 10 family members who are actually working in the motel, many of them are not getting wages just board and lodging. These complications are not captured by grand statistics in this report,” Mr. Lal said.
“The study is giving the broad parameters of this community and trying to show that this is the genius of America – that people can come here from anywhere in the world and they can achieve,” he added.
Cary Funk, a senior researcher on the Pew Forum’s study, said it was a “representative survey of all U.S. Asians, which is pretty rare.”
“We were analyzing the results among the largest religious groups… With any group average it’s always true that there is a diversity of experiences behind the average,” Ms. Funk said.
“The report doesn’t try to go into details of the reasons [behind the statistics] but we do try to recognize some of the major factors, for instance selective immigration,” she added.
The proportion of Asian Americans in the U.S. has increased from 1% of the population in 1965 to 5.8% in 2011, according to the latest census.
Over half of Hindus surveyed (59%) regarded themselves as “very different” from the typical American, compared to 53% of all Asian Americans questioned.
The Pew Research Center found that Christians make up 42% of Asian Americans, followed by 26% who class themselves as unaffiliated (atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular).
Buddhists account for about one-in-seven Asian Americans (14%), followed by Hindus (10%), Muslims (4%) and Sikhs (1%), the study said. Followers of other religions make up 2% of U.S. Asians.
Hindus were the group with the highest retention rate - 81% of those raised as Hindus told the researchers they remained Hindus, 12% were now agnostic, atheist or nothing in particular, and the rest had switched religion or did not give a current faith.
Politically, a large majority of Hindus in the survey (72%) lent towards the Democratic Party compared to 52% of all Asian Americans.
The findings were based on telephone interviews with 3,511 Asian American adults across all states and included the six largest Asian groups in the U.S. population: Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.
Joanna Sugden is freelance journalist living in Delhi. Before coming to India in 2011 she spent four-and-a-half years as a reporter at The Times of London, covering religion and education. You can follow her on Twitter @jhsugden.
