Most Indian Americans are Hindus, a New Pew Study on Religion Among Asian Americans Reveals
- While Indian Americans are far more likely than the other large Asian origin groups to be Hindus, a fair number of Indian Americans are Christian (15%), Muslim (8%) or Sikh (8%).
About 11 percent of Asian Americans now identify Hinduism as their religion, a new study from the Pew Research Center has revealed. While the number of Asian Americans who identify Hinduism as their religion has not changed much since 2012 (10%), “an additional 6% of all Asian Americans say they feel close to Hinduism aside from religion, for reasons such as ancestry or culture,” said the report — ‘Religion Among Asian Americans’ — released on Oct. 11, and authored by Besheer Mohamed and Michale Rotolo.
However, when it comes to the larger Asian American community, the study found that “a rising share [of Asian Americans] say they have no religion, but many consider themselves close to one or more religious traditions for reasons such as family or culture.” Thirty-two percent of Asian Americans are not affiliated with any religion, up from 26% in 2012.
Among Asian American adults who identify as Indian, “about half say their present religion is Hinduism (48%),” the report said, adding that “in total, two-thirds of Indian Americans say either that they are Hindu or that they consider themselves close to Hinduism.” While Indian Americans are far more likely than the other large Asian origin groups to be Hindus, the report showed, “A fair number of Indian Americans are Christian (15%), Muslim (8%) or Sikh (8%).”
The study also detailed some of the characteristics of the Asian American Hindus. Religion is important for one-third of that demographic, while it is somewhat important for 38%. Most of the Asian American Hindus (79%) are by far the most likely to say they use an altar, shrine, or religious symbol for worship in their home. “If you add this number to the Hindus who say religion is very important in their lives, that share increases to 89%,” the report added.
When it comes to religious uniformity in their friendship circle, four-in-ten Asian American Hindus say all or most of their friends have the same religion they do. That number is “significantly higher than the share of the overall Asian American population that reports such (40% vs. 30%),” the report said.
Demographically, Asian American Hindus stand out in a variety of other ways, the study said. About three-quarters (77%) are under age 50, making them one of the youngest Asian American religious groups, with a median age of 40.
Roughly nine in ten Asian American Hindu adults (92%) were born in a country other than the United States, “the highest share of any Asian American religious group that was born abroad,” the study says. At the same time, religiously unaffiliated Asian Americans who consider themselves close to Hinduism are more likely than those who religiously identify as Hindu to be U.S.-born (35% vs. 8%)
In terms of socioeconomic status, Asian American Hindus also rank exceptionally high. About six in ten have a postgraduate degree (61%), compared with 22% of all Asian American adults. And 44% of Asian American Hindus have a family income of $150,000 or greater, compared with 32% of Asian Americans overall. “On average, Hindu Americans have higher levels of education than any of the other Asian American religious groups large enough to be analyzed separately,” the study notes.
Politically, three-quarters of Asian American Hindus identify as Democrats or Democratic leaners, compared with 62% of Asian Americans overall.
(Top photo, courtesy, Wikimedia Commons)