The demographics of Filipino Americans describe a heterogeneous group of people in the United States who trace their ancestry to the Philippines. As of the 2020 census, there were 4.4 million Filipino Americans, including Multiracial Americans who were part-Filipino living in the US. Filipino Americans constitute the third-largest population of Asian Americans, and the largest population of Overseas Filipinos.
The first recorded presence of Filipinos in what is now the United States dates to October 1587, with the first permanent settlement of Filipinos in present-day Louisiana in 1763. Migration of significant numbers of Filipinos to the United States did not occur until the early 20th century, when the Philippines was an overseas territory of the United States. After World War II, and until 1965, migration of Filipinos to the United States was reduced limited to primarily military and medically connected immigration. Since 1965, due to changes in immigration policy, the population of Filipino Americans has expanded significantly.
Filipino Americans can be found throughout the United States, especially in the Western United States and metropolitan areas. As a population, Filipino Americans are multilingual, with Tagalog being the largest non-English language spoken. A majority of Filipino Americans are Christian, with smaller populations having other religious views. On average, Filipino Americans earn a higher household income and achieve a higher level of education than the national average.
National population demographics
Due to the significant increase of Indian Americans, Filipino Americans became the third-largest Asian American ethnicity in the United States. Filipino Americans who only listed Filipino alone, increased their population by 20.4% to 3,076,108, being the third largest Asian alone ethnicities behind Indian Americans, and Chinese Americans. When including multiracial Asian Americans, the total population of Filipino Americans increased by 29.9% to 4,436,992 persons, behind Chinese Americans and Indian Americans. According to the 2023 American Community Survey about two thirds of Filipino Americans were not multiracial, and under half are immigrants (47%).
The Filipino American community was the second-largest Asian American group in the United States with a population of over 3.4 million as of the 2010 US census, making up 19.7% of Asian Americans. Only Chinese Americans had a larger population among Asian Americans in 2014. Not including multiracial Filipino Americans, the population of those responding as Filipino alone in the 2010 census was 2,555,923, an increase of 38% in population from the 2000 census. 69% of Filipino Americans were born outside of the United States. 77% of all Filipino Americans are United States citizens. Filipino Americans are the largest subgroup of Overseas Filipinos; as of 2011, there are 1,813,597 Philippines-born immigrants living in the United States (4.5% of all immigrants in the United States), of which 65% had become naturalized US citizens. In 2014, there was an estimated 1.23 million second generation Filipino Americans, who had a median age of 20, yet three percent were over the age of 64. Life expectancy for Filipino Americans is higher than the general population of the United States; however, survival rates of Filipino Americans diagnosed with cancer are lower than European Americans and African Americans. In 2015, the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimated that there were over 3.8 million Filipinos in the United States. In 2018, the American Community Survey estimated the population of Filipinos in the United States to be over 4 million. In 2019, the American Community Survey estimated the population of Filipinos in the United States to be about 4.2 Million.
The US Census Bureau reported that the 2007 American Community Survey, identified approximately 3.1 million persons as "Filipino alone or in any combination". The census also found that about 80% of the Filipino American community are United States citizens. According to a study published in 2007, 11% of single-heritage Filipinos did not mark "Asian" as their race; this number was greater among multiracial Filipinos. Also in 2011, the U.S. State Department estimated the size of the Filipino American community at four million, or 1.5% of the United States population. There are no official records of Filipinos who hold dual citizenship; however, during the 2000 census data indicated that Filipino Americans had the lowest percentage of non-citizens amongst Asian Americans, at 26%. Additionally, although historically there had been a larger number of Filipino American men than women, women represented 54% of the Filipino American adult population in the 2000 Census.
Filipino Americans are the largest group of Overseas Filipinos, and the majority were born outside of the United States; at the same time, more than 73% are United States citizens. Among Asian Americans, Filipino Americans are the most integrated in American society, and are described by University of California, Santa Barbara Professor Pei-te Lien as being "acculturated and economically incorporated". One in five is a multiracial American. Multiple languages are spoken by Filipino Americans, and the majority are Roman Catholic. Filipino Americans had the second highest median family income amongst Asian Americans, and had a high level of educational achievement.
Interracial marriage among Filipinos is common. They have the largest number of interracial marriages among Asian immigrant groups in California; only Japanese Americans have a higher rate nationally. Compared to other Asian Americans, Filipino Americans are more likely to have a Hispanic spouse. Statistically, Filipino American women are more likely to marry outside of their ethnicity (38.9%) than Filipino American men (17.6%). Between 2008 and 2010, 48% of Filipino American marriages were with non-Asians. It is also noted that 21.8% of Filipino Americans are multiracial, second among Asian Americans. Depending on their parentage, multiracial Filipino Americans may refer to themselves as Mestizo, Tsinoy, Blackapino, and Mexipino.
Historical settlement
Early immigration The earliest recorded presence of Filipinos in what is now the United States is October 1587 when mariners under Spanish command landed in Morro Bay, California. The earliest permanent Filipino American residents arrived in the Americans in 1763, settling in Louisiana's bayou country. They later created settlements in the Mississippi River Delta such as Saint Malo and Manila Village. They were documented by Harper's Weekly journalist Lafcadio Hearn in 1883. These settlements were the first longstanding Asian American settlements in the United States. The last of these, Manila Village, survived until 1965 when it was destroyed by Hurricane Betsy. An additional 2,000 were documented in New Orleans with their roots dating back to about 1806— the first being Augustin Feliciano from the Philippines's Bicol Region. Others came later from: Manila, Cavite, Ilocos, Camarines, Zamboanga, Zambales, Leyte, Samar, Antique, Bulacan, Bohol, Cagayan, and Surigao.
American period
Significant immigration to the United States began in the 1900s after the Spanish–American War when the Philippines became an overseas territory of the United States, and the population became United States nationals. Unlike other Asians who were unable to immigrate to the United States because of the immigration laws of the time, Filipinos, as U.S. nationals, were exempt. In December 1915, it was ruled that Filipinos were eligible for naturalization and could become citizens. Naturalization remained difficult, however, with documented cases of denied naturalization and de-naturalization occurring in the early 20th century. Filipinos, many agricultural laborers, settled primarily in the then Territory of Hawaii and California. Of the one hundred thirteen thousand Filipinos who immigrated during the early American period, about a third returned to the Philippines.
A smaller group of immigrants were sent on a scholarship program established by the Philippine Commission, and were collectively known as "pensionados"; the first batch of pensionados was sent in 1903 and the scholarship program continued until World War II. The students were chosen initially from wealthy and elite Filipino families, but were later from a more diverse background. Other Filipino students, outside the program, came to the United States for education; many did not return to the Philippines.
During this wave of migration to the United States from the Philippines, men outnumbered women by a ratio of about 15:1. Nuclear families were rare, therefore, and an indication of privilege. This migration, known as the "manong generation", was reduced to 50 persons a year after passage of the Tydings–McDuffie Act (officially the Philippine Independence Act) which classified Filipinos as aliens. This was offset by the United States Navy's recruitment of Filipinos, that began in 1898 and authorized by President William McKinley in 1901. They were exempt from this quota. Additionally, those Filipino sailors were eligible for naturalization after three years of service. By 1922, Filipinos made up 5.7% of the United States Navy's enlisted personnel. In 1930, there were twenty-five thousand Filipino Americans in the United States Navy, primarily rated as stewards, having largely displaced African-Americans in that rating.
Post-independence The War Brides Act of 1945, and subsequent Alien Fiancées and Fiancés Act of 1946, allowed veterans to return to the Philippines to bring back fiancées, wives, and children. Some sixteen thousand Filipinas entered the United States as war brides, and a lone Filipino groom immigrated during this period. These new immigrants formed a second generation of Filipino Americans that grew Filipino American communities, providing nuclear families. Immigration levels were impacted by the independence of the Philippines from the United States, that occurred on 4 July 1946. The quota of non-naval immigration increased slightly to 100 because of the passage of the Luce–Celler Act of 1946. Thus, Filipino American communities developed around United States Navy bases, whose impact can still be seen today. Filipino American communities were also settled near Army and Air Force bases. After World War II, until 1965, half of all Filipino immigrants to the United States were wives of U.S. servicemembers. In 1946, the Filipino Naturalization Act allowed for naturalization, and citizenship for Filipinos who had arrived before March 1943. Beginning in 1948, due to the U.S. Education Exchange Act, Filipino nurses began to immigrate to the United States; 7,000 arrived that year.
Post-1965