From 290 people who obtained lawful permanent resident status in the 1950s, in 2021, there were about 1,338,538 Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S (data from Census Bureau 2021 American Community Survey, released September 15th, 2022). Vietnamese mostly immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s after the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
Vietnamese is one of the largest foreign-born groups in the United States, ranked 4th among Asian immigrant groups, after India, China (including Hong Kong), and the Philippines.
In 2021, over 51 percent of all Vietnamese immigrants lived in California or Texas. Since 2010, the top ten states with the most Vietnamese immigrants remain almost the same: California, Texas, Florida, Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Massachusett, Pennsylvania, New York, and North Carolina.
In terms of core-based statistical area (CBSA), in 2010, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (CA Metro Area), San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (CA Metro Area), Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown (TX Metro Area), San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (CA Metro Area), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (TX Metro Area) were the most Vietnamese population density in the U.S.
However, in 2021, Seatle-Tacoma-Bellevue (WA Metro Area) replaced San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont in the top 5. Those 5 places acquired over 41% of all Vietnamese in the U.S.
The median age for Vietnamese immigrants was 51.9 years old in 2021, a little older than the median age for all immigrants which was 46.6 years old, and 38.8 for the U.S. in total. The high median age is due to the fact that the vast majority of Vietnamese came into the U.S in the 70s and 80s. 60% of Vietnamese entered the U.S before 2000, and just 22% of them entered in 2010 or later.
In education, nearly 71% of Vietnamese immigrants ages 25 and older hold high school diplomas or higher, and about 30% hold bachelor's degrees or higher.
Vietnamese are generally hard workers. The unemployment rate among Vietnamese 16 years or older is relatively low, at 6.1% in 2021, a little bit lower than in the U.S. population in general (6.3%). They mostly worked in manufacturing, educational services, healthcare, social assistance, and other services.
The median household income of Vietnamese immigrants in 2021 was $74,588, higher than the median for immigrants in total and all the U.S. population in total, which were $69,622 and $69,717 respectively. Vietnamese income per capita was also higher than the U.S. population in total ($40,127 vs $38.332).
About 10.9% of Vietnamese families lived in poverty, compared to 12.5% of all immigrants.
Vietnamese people generally tend to own a house more than other foreign-born immigrants, with 72.7% compared to 55.6%.
The house’s median value was also higher, at $416.100 compared to $281.400 in the U.S. population in general.
In 2021, only 6.7% of Vietnamese immigrants didn’t have health insurance, nearly 6 times lower than Mexican immigrants. Over 62% of them had private health insurance, and nearly 39% of them had public coverage.
Immigrants from Vietnam are significantly more likely than the overall foreign-born population to be naturalized U.S. citizens or to obtain permanent resident status.
According to Homeland Security data, in 2020, Vietnam ranked 56th among the countries with the most nonimmigrant admissions to the U.S but ranked 5th among the countries with the most people obtaining lawful permanent resident status with 29,334 people.
As of 2019, 76 percent of Vietnamese immigrants were U.S. citizens, compared to 52 percent of the total foreign-born population, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
According to the data from Homeland Security Yearbook 2020, in the 1950 - 1960 period, there were only 290 Vietnamese obtaining lawful permanent resident status in the U.S., and the number was still low the next decade but rose by over 4000% in the 70s, due to the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Since then, the number has kept growing, but in a much smaller percentage: 65% in the 80s, 37% in the 90s, 5% in the 2000s and rose again by 23.4% in the 2010s.
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that 58,000 unauthorized immigrants from Vietnam resided in the United States as of 2018, accounting for about 1 percent of all 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country.
