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Filipino Immigrants in the United States
Marchers at the Philippine Independence Day Parade in New York City. (Photo: Ryan Rahman/iStock.com)
Migration from the Philippines to North America dates back to at least the late 1700s, when Filipino migrants came (sometimes after being enslaved by Spanish colonizers) to work primarily in agriculture. Migration to the United States took off in earnest when the islands were a U.S. colony, from 1898 to 1946, during which period Filipinos were treated as U.S. nationals for immigration and labor purposes but as a group were unable to become U.S. citizens. After World War II, immigration from the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia grew, especially after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act abolished national-origin quotas that had long favored Europeans. At the same time, the Philippines’ 1974 Labor Code encouraged more Filipinos to emigrate as a national development strategy. These more recent arrivals in the United States tended to be higher educated and worked in a wider range of occupations including education, health care, hospitality, and manufacturing.
The 2.1 million immigrants from the Philippines residing in the United States as of 2023 represented 4 percent of all 47.8 million U.S. immigrants. They made up the fourth largest national-origin immigrant group, after Mexicans, Indians, and Chinese. Nearly one in seven Asian-born immigrants in the United States as of 2023 was from the Philippines.
More than half of Filipino immigrants have a college degree, three-quarters are naturalized U.S. citizens, and half have been in the United States since at least 2000—all of which are higher rates than for immigrants overall. A large share of Filipino immigrants resides in Western states, with the highest concentrations in California, followed by Hawaii, Texas, and Nevada.
This Spotlight provides updated information on the Filipino immigrant population in the United States, focusing on its size, geographic distribution, and socioeconomic characteristics.
Click on the bullet points below for more information:
- Size of Immigrant Population over Time
- Distribution by State and Key Cities
- English Proficiency
- Age, Education, and Employment
- Income and Poverty
- Immigration Pathways and Naturalization
- Unauthorized Immigrant Population
- Health Coverage
- Diaspora
- Top Global Destinations
- Remittances
Size of Immigrant Population over Time
Since 1980, the Filipino immigrant population in the United States has grown substantially, although the rate of growth has slowed more recently. The population nearly doubled between 1980 and 1990 and then kept increasing at a slower pace (see Figure 1). The population rose by 15 percent between 2010 and 2023, slower than the overall U.S. immigrant population (20 percent).
Figure 1. Filipino Immigrant Population in the United States, 1980-2023
Source: Data from U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 and 2023 American Community Surveys (ACS), and Campbell J. Gibson and Kay Jung, “Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 1850-2000” (Working Paper no. 81, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, February 2006), available online.
Distribution by State and Key Cities
The Filipino immigrant population is predominantly concentrated on the West Coast, particularly in California, which was home to 41 percent of Filipino immigrants as of the 2019-23 period. Other states with large Filipino immigrant communities were Hawaii (6 percent) and Texas, Nevada, and Illinois (5 percent apiece). The top counties of residence for Filipino immigrants were Los Angeles County, California; San Diego County, California; Honolulu County, Hawaii; and Clark County, Nevada. Together, these four counties were home to nearly one-quarter of all Filipino immigrants in the United States.
Click here for an interactive map that highlights the states and counties with the highest concentrations of immigrants from the Philippines or other countries.
The greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, San Diego, and Chicago metropolitan areas had the largest Filipino immigrant communities. These five metro areas were home to 38 percent of Filipinos in the United States. Filipino immigrants accounted for 8 percent of the total population of the greater Honolulu metropolitan area, more than any other comparable city.
Figure 2. Top Metropolitan Destinations for Filipino Immigrants in the United States, 2019-23
Note: Pooled 2019-23 ACS data were used to get statistically valid estimates at the metropolitan statistical-area level for smaller-population geographies. Not shown is the population in Alaska, which is small in size. For details, visit the Migration Policy Institute’s (MPI) Migration Data Hub for an interactive map showing geographic distribution of immigrants by metro area, available online.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from U.S. Census Bureau’s pooled 2019-23 ACS.
Click here for an interactive map that highlights the metro areas with the most immigrants from the Philippines or other countries.
Filipino immigrants are more likely than the overall foreign-born population to be proficient in English. In 2023, about 29 percent of Filipinos ages 5 and over reported speaking English less than “very well,” compared to 47 percent of all immigrants. One reason for this is that English is one of the two official languages of the Philippines and is used as a lingua franca and in education. Another factor is Filipino immigrants’ relatively high levels of education (see next section).
At the same time, 16 percent of Filipinos spoke only English at home, about the same as the total foreign-born population (17 percent).
Age, Education, and Employment
Filipino immigrants are, on average, older than both the overall foreign-born population and the U.S. born. The median age for Filipino immigrants was 53 years in 2023, compared to 47 for all immigrants and 37 for U.S. natives. This is because many Filipino immigrants are seniors: 27 percent were age 65 or older, compared to 18 percent of both the overall immigrant and U.S.-born populations (see Figure 3). Approximately 70 percent of Filipinos were of working age (ages 18 to 64), compared to 76 percent of all immigrants and 58 percent of U.S. natives.
Figure 3. Age Distribution of the U.S. Population by Origin, 2023
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
Overall, Filipinos tend to have much higher educational attainment than both the U.S.- and total foreign-born populations. In 2023, 53 percent of Filipino immigrants ages 25 and older reported having at least a bachelor’s degree, compared to 36 percent of U.S.-born and 35 percent of all immigrant adults (see Figure 4). Only 6 percent of Filipino immigrant adults had less than a high school diploma, compared to 25 percent of all immigrants.
Figure 4. Educational Attainment of the U.S. Population (ages 25 and older), by Origin, 2023
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
Click here for data on immigrants’ educational attainment by country of origin and overall.
Nearly 4,100 students from the Philippines were enrolled in U.S. higher education institutions during the 2023-24 academic year, according to the Institute of International Education, making up a small portion of the 1.1 million international students in the country overall. Filipinos represented 8 percent of the 53,600 students from Southeast Asia.
Filipinos tend to participate in the labor force at a roughly similar rate as immigrants overall. In 2023, 65 percent of Filipino immigrants 16 and older were in the U.S. civilian labor force, compared to 67 percent of immigrants overall and 63 percent of the U.S. born. Employed Filipino immigrants were most likely to be in management, business, science, and arts occupations, followed by service occupations and sales and office occupations (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Employed Workers in the U.S. Civilian Labor Force (ages 16 and older), by Occupation and Origin, 2023
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
Filipino immigrants tend to have higher incomes than both the overall foreign- and native-born populations. In 2023, the median income for households led by Filipino immigrants was $112,600, compared to $78,700 for all immigrant-led households and $77,600 for those headed by the U.S. born.
Filipino immigrants are also less likely to be living in poverty than both the U.S.-born and overall immigrant populations. In 2023, 7 percent of Filipino immigrants were in poverty, compared to 14 percent of the overall foreign-born population and 12 percent of the U.S. born. (The U.S. Census Bureau defines poverty as having an income below $30,900 for a family of four in 2023.)
Immigration Pathways and Naturalization
Filipino immigrants are a largely long-settled population. Half arrived in or before 2000, compared to 44 percent of all immigrants (see Figure 6). In part because of their relatively established presence in the United States, Filipinos are more likely to be naturalized U.S. citizens than immigrants overall (76 percent versus 52 percent, respectively).
Figure 6. Filipinos and All Immigrants in the United States by Period of Arrival, 2023
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 as they are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
In fiscal year (FY) 2023, approximately 49,200 Filipinos became lawful permanent residents (LPRs, also known as green-card holders), accounting for 4 percent of all 1.2 million new green-card recipients that year. Two-thirds of Filipinos who received a green card that year did so through family sponsorship, while one-third did so through an employer. Virtually none obtained a green card via the asylum and refugee pathway.
Unauthorized Immigrant Population
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that as of mid-2023, about 294,000 (2 percent) of all 13.7 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States were from the Philippines. This represents the same share of the unauthorized immigrant population as in 2010, when MPI estimated there were 189,000 unauthorized Filipino immigrants.
Click here for an overview of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States as of mid-2023.
As of December 2024, approximately 2,460 immigrants from the Philippines participated in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, accounting for less than 1 percent of all 533,000 DACA recipients. DACA provides temporary deportation relief and work authorization to unauthorized immigrants who arrived in the United States as children and meet the program’s education and other eligibility criteria.
Click here to view the top origin countries of DACA recipients and their U.S. states of residence.
Filipinos are less likely to lack health insurance than the overall foreign-born population, and about as likely as the U.S.-born population. In 2023, 5 percent of Filipino immigrants were uninsured, compared to 18 percent of all immigrants (see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Health Coverage for Filipino Immigrants, All Immigrants, and the U.S. Born, 2023
Note: The sum of shares by type of insurance is likely to be greater than 100 because people may have more than one type of insurance.
Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2023 ACS.
The Filipino diaspora in the United States was comprised of close to 4.7 million individuals who were either born in the Philippines or reported Filipino ancestry or origin in 2023, according to MPI tabulation of U.S. Census Bureau data. The Filipino diaspora was the 11th largest in the country.
Click here to see estimates of the 35 largest diasporas groups in the United States in 2023.
The United States is overwhelmingly the most popular destination for Filipinos living abroad, according to 2024 United Nations Population Division estimates. Canada is home to the next largest population of Filipino immigrants (nearly 836,000), followed by Saudi Arabia (755,000), the United Arab Emirates (529,000), and Australia (357,000).
Click here to view an interactive map showing where migrants from the Philippines and other countries have settled worldwide.
Filipinos living abroad and others with connections to the country sent an estimated $40 billion in remittances to families and friends in the Philippines via formal channels in 2024, according to World Bank estimates (see Figure 8). That represents a $5 billion increase since 2019, likely reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent constrained economy in the Philippines. Remittances represented close to 9 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024.
Figure 8. Annual Remittance Flows to the Philippines, 2000-24
Note: Data for 2024 are an estimate.
Sources: Dilip Ratha, Sonia Plaza, and Eung Ju Kim, “In 2024, Remittance Flows to Low- and Middle-Income Countries Are Expected to Reach $685 Billion, Larger than FDI and ODA Combined,” World Bank blog post, December 18, 2024, available online.
Click here to view an interactive chart showing annual remittances received by and sent to the Philippines and other countries.
Sources
Dela Cruz, Mark T. and VJ Periyakoil. 2010. Health and Health Care of Filipino American Older Adults: Immigration History. Stanford, CA: Stanford School of Medicine. Available online.
Gibson, Campbell J. and Kay Jung. 2006. Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-2000. Working Paper no. 81, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, February 2006. Available online.
Hernandez, Carolina G., Michael Cullinane, and Gregorio C. Borlaza. 2025. Philippines. Encyclopedia Britannica. Updated August 26, 2025. Available online.
Institute of International Education (IIE). 2024. International Students: All Places of Origin. Available online.
Migration Policy Institute (MPI), Migration Data Hub. N.d. U.S. Immigrant Population by State and County. Accessed August 15, 2025. Available online.
Opiniano, Jeremaiah M. and Alvin P. Ang. 2024. The Philippines’ Landmark Labor Export and Development Policy Enters the Next Generation. Migration Information Source, January 3, 2024. Available online.
Ratha, Dilip, Sonia Plaza, and Eung Ju Kim. 2024. In 2024, Remittance Flows to Low- and Middle-Income Countries Are Expected to Reach $685 Billion, Larger than FDI and ODA Combined. World Bank blog post, December 18, 2024. Available online.
United Nations Population Division. 2024. International Migrant Stock 2024: Destination and Origin. Available online.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2024. 2023 American Community Survey. Accessed from Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Matthew Sobek, Daniel Backman, Annie Chen, Grace Cooper, Stephanie Richards, Renae Rodgers, and Megan Schouweiler. IPUMS USA: Version 15.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2024. Available online.
—. N.d. 2023 American Community Survey—Advanced Search: S0201 Selected Population Profile in the United States. Accessed July 30, 2025. Available online.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 2025. Count of Active DACA Recipients by Month of Current DACA Expiration as of December 31, 2024. Updated February 2025. Available online.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS). 2024. 2023 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. Washington, DC: DHS OHSS. Available online.
