Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing populations among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. As such, it’s important to understand how Asian Americans interact with the economy and their financial outcomes: What is their purchasing power, and what influences it? Using data from the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), we found that the typical, or median, Asian household1 had about $120,000 in income. This was roughly 50% more than the typical white household.
The Asian group is made up of diverse subgroups (the five largest are Chinese, except Taiwanese; Asian Indian; Filipino; Vietnamese; and Korean), each with unique economic outcomes. For example, Pew researchers found that Burmese American adults had lower educational attainment and income levels than many other Asian subgroups as of 2019, while Indian Americans ranked at the top of the distribution. Despite considerable variability within the Asian group, the majority of Asian subgroups had higher educational attainment and income levels than the general U.S. population.
What is influencing the relatively strong incomes among Asian households? In our analysis of the 2022 SCF data, we found educational attainment to be an important factor.2 Note that the SCF has limited information on ancestry or ethnic origin, so we cannot meaningfully disaggregate our results further.