Filipino Americans:
A Survey Data Snapshot
These data snapshots are drawn from Pew Research Center’s in-depth research portfolio on Asian Americans. To learn more, visit our Asian Americans topic page. For our latest demographic data on Filipino Americans, visit “Facts about Filipinos in the U.S.”
About 4.1 million Filipino Americans lived in the United States as of 2022, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Filipinos account for 17% of the nation’s total Asian American population.
Unlike most of the other major Asian origin groups, more Filipino Americans are U.S. born than immigrants (52% vs. 48%). Among Filipino immigrants, three-quarters (75%) are naturalized U.S. citizens – a higher share than among the other large Asian origin groups we studied, except Vietnamese Americans.
Roughly four-in-ten Filipino Americans (1.6 million, or 38%) live in California, with the highest concentrations in the Los Angeles and San Francisco metropolitan areas. Other states with sizable numbers of Filipino Americans include Hawaii (270,000) and Texas (208,000).
The median income among Filipino American households was $100,600 in 2022, meaning that half of households headed by a Filipino American person earned more than that and half earned less. This is similar to the median household income among Asian Americans overall that year ($100,000).
Here’s a closer look at Filipino Americans’ views on a range of topics, including how they describe their own identities and how they identify politically and religiously. These findings are based on a nationally representative Pew Research Center survey of 7,006 Asian adults in the U.S. – including 1,051 Filipino Americans – conducted in 2022 and 2023.
Identity
Filipino Americans describe their identity in a variety of ways, as do Asian Americans overall. About six-in-ten (61%) say they most often describe themselves as “Filipino” or “Filipino American.” A fifth (20%) typically describe themselves as “Asian American” or “Asian,” while 13% most often call themselves “American.”
Some Filipino Americans say they have hidden a part of their heritage – such as cultural or religious practices – from people who are not Asian. In our survey, 16% say they have done this.
Views of the U.S. and the Philippines
Filipino Americans have broadly favorable views of the U.S. and the Philippines.
About three-quarters of Filipino Americans (76%) have a very or somewhat favorable view of the U.S., and a similar share (72%) have a favorable opinion of the Philippines.
Although a large majority of Filipino Americans have a favorable view of the Philippines, two-thirds say they wouldn’t move there. Just 31% of Filipino adults in the U.S. say they’d move to the Philippines, although that willingness varies significantly by where they were born. Filipino immigrants are about four times as likely as U.S.-born Filipino adults to say they would move to the Philippines (43% vs. 10%).
Achieving the American dream
Most Filipino Americans feel that they’re either on their way to achieving the American dream or have already achieved it. About four-in-ten (41%) say they’re on their way, while about three-in-ten (29%) say they’ve already achieved it. However, 29% of Filipino Americans say the American dream is out of reach for them.
Politics
Most Filipino American registered voters identify with or lean to the Democratic Party. About two-thirds of Filipino American voters (68%) are Democrats or lean Democratic, while 31% are Republicans or lean Republican. By comparison, among Asian American registered voters overall, 62% identify as or lean Democratic and 34% identify as or lean Republican.
As of 2022, two-thirds of all Filipino Americans – about 2.7 million people – were eligible to vote in the U.S., meaning they were at least 18 years old and citizens either through birth or naturalization, according to Census Bureau data.
Religion
Filipino Americans are more likely than the other large Asian American origin groups to say they are Christian. About three-quarters of Filipino Americans (74%) identify this way, including more than half (57%) who say they’re Catholic. Smaller shares identify as evangelical Protestant (9%) and nonevangelical Protestant (7%). About a quarter of Filipino adults (23%) are not affiliated with any religion.
Photo by Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
This analysis is one in a seven-part series that explores the identities, views, attitudes and experiences of Asian Americans, including the six largest Asian origin groups in the U.S. In these analyses, Asian Americans include those who identify as Asian, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic ethnicity.
The six Asian origin groups highlighted in this series – Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese Americans – include those who identify with one Asian origin only, either alone or in combination with a non-Asian race or ethnicity. In this series, Chinese adults do not include those who self-identify as Taiwanese. Other Pew Research Center analyses exploring the attitudes and characteristics of Asian origin groups may use different definitions and therefore may not be directly comparable.
This analysis is based on two data sources. The first is Pew Research Center’s 2022-23 survey of Asian American adults, conducted from July 2022 to January 2023 in six languages among 7,006 respondents. The Center recruited a large sample to examine the diversity of the U.S. Asian population, with oversamples of the Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean and Vietnamese populations. These are the five largest origin groups among Asian Americans. The survey also includes a large enough sample of self-identified Japanese adults to make certain findings about them reportable. For more details, read the methodology.
The second data source is the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) provided through Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) from the University of Minnesota.
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. The Center’s Asian American portfolio was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from The Asian American Foundation; Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Henry Luce Foundation; the Doris Duke Foundation; The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation; The Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation; The Long Family Foundation; Lu-Hebert Fund; Gee Family Foundation; Joseph Cotchett; the Julian Abdey and Sabrina Moyle Charitable Fund; and Nanci Nishimura.
We would also like to thank the Leaders Forum for its thoughtful leadership and valuable assistance in helping make this survey possible.
The strategic communications campaign used to promote the research was made possible with generous support from the Doris Duke Foundation.