Marriage and households among South Asian Americans

South Asian Americans here are people who report a single race of Asian Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Sri Lankan or Bhutanese, as defined in chapter 1. Married means married with the spouse present or absent; separated people are not counted as married, as in the Census Bureau's tables. For 2024 alone, these estimates come within 0.3 percentage points of the Census Bureau's published marital-status shares for all Americans, Asian Americans, non-Hispanic white Americans, South Asian Americans and Indian Americans, and within 0.01 people of its average household sizes [1].The American Community Survey (ACS) samples of 2022, 2023 and 2024 include 172,495 South Asian Americans, with their marital status and their relationship to the householder, from which IPUMS infers each person's spouse and parents in the same household [2, 3]. Among those aged 25 to 34, 56.1% were married (90% interval 55.5 to 56.8), against 38.3% of all Americans, 43.6% of non-Hispanic white Americans and 37.3% of other Asian Americans that age.

Most South Asian Americans are married by their early thirties; at 35 to 64, 5% are divorced or separated, against 15% of all Americans with the same age distribution

At ages 30 to 34, 73.2% of South Asian Americans were married, against 47.2% of all Americans. More women than men were married in their twenties: at 25 to 29, 47.0% of South Asian women and 22.4% of men were married. At 35 to 44, 8.2% had never married, against 27.2% of all Americans. Among those aged 35 to 64, 5.1% were divorced or separated, against 15.4% of all Americans with the same age distribution.

Immigrants who arrived at 13 or older were the most likely to be married in their twenties and early thirties: 44.3% of those aged 25 to 29 and 80.5% of those 30 to 34 were married. A smaller share of US-born South Asian Americans than of all US-born Americans were married in their twenties, and a larger share were married by their forties. At 25 to 29, 17.6% were married, against 27.6% of all US-born Americans that age; at 40 to 44, 74.8% were, against 60.0%. In the same years 35.7% of US-born South Asian Americans aged 25 to 34 lived with a parent, against 21.9% of all US-born Americans that age. The Pew Research Center's tabulation of the 2021–23 ACS shows the same split for Indian Americans 18 and older, 77% of immigrants married against 35% of the US-born, a gap that also reflects the younger ages of the US-born [4]. The median US-born South Asian American adult in this chapter's data was 28 years old.

Figure 1

At 25 to 29, 18% of US-born South Asian Americans were married, against 44% of South Asian immigrants who arrived at 13 or older

By 40 to 44 the shares were 75% and 93%. Percentage married, by five-year age group, pooled ACS 2022–24.

• South Asian immigrants, arrived at 13 or older
• US-born South Asian Americans
• Other Asian Americans
• All Americans

Show data

Among origin groups with at least 200 records at ages 25 to 34, the share married ranged from 52.7% of Sri Lankan Americans to 65.0% of Bangladeshi Americans. The Bhutanese American share, 76.4% (90% interval 64.7 to 88.1), rests on 54 records. Every South Asian origin group had a lower share divorced or separated at 35 to 64 than all Americans with the same ages.

Figure 2

Each South Asian origin group was married more often at 25 to 34, and divorced or separated less often at 35 to 64, than Americans as a whole

Pooled ACS 2022–24, with 90% intervals. Divorce and separation are standardized to the South Asian American age distribution.

• South Asian American
• Origin group
• Other Asian American
• Non-Hispanic white
• All Americans

† Small sample.

Show data

Among South Asian Americans living with their spouse, 94% of immigrants who arrived at 13 or older have a spouse of the same origin and 27% of the US-born have a spouse outside South Asian groups

Spouses are linked through the household roster, so each married person whose spouse lives in the same household can be compared with the spouse's own answers on race, Hispanic origin and birthplace [3]. Among married South Asian immigrants who arrived at 13 or older, 94.1% had a spouse of the same origin and 5.1% a spouse outside South Asian groups. When the year of each person's most recent marriage is compared with the year the person came to live in the US [5, 6], 51.0% of these immigrants had married before the year they arrived, 11.6% in that year and 37.4% afterward. Of those who married after arriving, 88.8% had a spouse of the same origin, 10.1% a spouse outside South Asian groups and 85.9% a spouse who was also a South Asian immigrant, against 97.3%, 2.2% and 95.6% of those who married before or in the year they arrived. Immigrants who arrived before 13, all of whom married after arriving, fell in between, with 77.8% married within their origin group and 20.0% outside South Asian groups. Among the US-born, 70.5% had a spouse of the same origin, 2.5% a spouse of another South Asian origin and 27.0% a spouse outside South Asian groups, most often a non-Hispanic white spouse (17.3%).

US-born women and men married outside South Asian groups at about the same rate (27.3% and 26.7%). Among all Asian American newlyweds of 2014–15, the Pew Research Center found a wider gap among the US-born, 54% of women and 38% of men married to someone of a different race or ethnicity [7]. Of US-born South Asian Americans married to another South Asian American, 51.1% were married to an immigrant. In the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey, 71% of US-born respondents with a spouse or partner and 85% of foreign-born respondents with one had a spouse or partner of Indian origin [8].

Marriages to other Asian Americans were uncommon: 3.1% of married US-born South Asian Americans had a spouse of another Asian origin. Gullickson studies opposite-sex couples in the 2014–18 ACS who had married in the previous five years, in a first marriage for both partners, excluding couples in which either partner had moved to the US or across state lines in those five years. Among them, the odds of a marriage between an East or Southeast Asian American and an Indian American were 14% of the odds of a marriage within one ethnic group, after accounting for group sizes, age, education, birthplace and language [9]. Among newlyweds of 2008–2010, 14% of Indian Americans married someone who was not Asian or was of another Asian origin, the lowest share of the six largest Asian origin groups, against 35% of all Asian American newlyweds [10].

Figure 3

71% of married US-born South Asian Americans had a spouse of the same origin, against 94% of immigrants who arrived at 13 or older

Spouse's group, married South Asian Americans living with their spouse, pooled ACS 2022–24.

Same originAnother South Asian originAnother Asian originNon-Hispanic whiteHispanicBlack, multiracial or another group

Use the arrow keys to move between marks.

Show data

Figure 4

10% of immigrants who arrived at 13 or older and married after arriving had spouses outside South Asian groups, against 2% of those married before or in their arrival year

Among US-born South Asian Americans who married in the previous five years, 35% had a spouse outside South Asian groups. Spouse's group by when the marriage took place, married South Asian Americans living with their spouse, pooled ACS 2022–24.

Same originAnother South Asian originAnother Asian originNon-Hispanic whiteHispanicBlack, multiracial or another group

Use the arrow keys to move between marks.

Show data

The share of married US-born South Asian Americans with a spouse outside South Asian groups was 28.2% in 2005–09 and 27.2% in 2021–24, 1.0 percentage points lower (90% interval for the change −2.8 to 0.7). Single years ranged from 24.3% to 32.3%, while the number of such records in the sample rose from 452 in 2005 to 2,374 in 2024. Among immigrants the share stayed between 5.5% and 6.8%. Among married US-born South Asian Americans living with their spouse in 2022–24, 35.1% of those who had married in the previous five years had a spouse outside South Asian groups, against 24.1% of those who married earlier, a difference of 11.0 percentage points (90% interval 8.2 to 13.8). Both groups count only marriages still intact in 2022–24, and the earlier marriages have had more time to end. For Asian Americans as a whole, Qian and Qian find in the Current Population Survey that, among young second-generation women married to an Asian or non-Hispanic white husband, the share with a non-Hispanic white husband fell from 53% in 1994–2004 to 36% in 2005–2015 [11].

Figure 5

Among married US-born South Asian Americans, the share with a spouse outside South Asian groups was 28% in 2005–09 and 27% in 2021–24

Married South Asian Americans living with their spouse, single ACS years, with 90% intervals.

• US-born
• Immigrants

Show data

South Asian households are larger, and more of them span three generations

Households headed by a South Asian American averaged 2.97 people in 2022–24, against 2.50 for all households. 14.1% of South Asian Americans lived in a household of three or more generations, the Census Bureau's definition of a multigenerational household [12, 13], against 8.2% of all Americans and 5.1% of non-Hispanic white Americans. The share was 19.0% among Pakistani, 20.9% among Bangladeshi and 21.5% among Nepali Americans.

92.8% of South Asian American children under 18 lived with two parents and 92.3% with two parents married to each other, against 70.6% and 62.7% of all American children. Of South Asian American women who had a baby in the past 12 months, 3.0% were never married, widowed or divorced, against 30.5% of all American women who did. Among women aged 15 to 49, the rate of having a baby in the past 12 months, standardized to the age distribution of all American women that age, was 51 per 1,000 South Asian American women, against 52 per 1,000 American women. The rate was higher for Pakistani (75) and Bangladeshi (66) American women and lower for Indian American women (47).

Figure 6

14% of South Asian Americans lived in a household of three or more generations, against 8% of all Americans

Households and living arrangements, pooled ACS 2022–24, with 90% intervals.

• South Asian American
• Origin group
• Other Asian American
• Non-Hispanic white
• All Americans

† Small sample.

Show data

52% of South Asian Americans 65 and older live with an adult child, against 18% of all Americans that age

A person lives with an adult child here when someone aged 18 or older in the same household is recorded as that person's son or daughter, whoever heads the household. A person recorded as the householder's parent-in-law also counts when the householder's spouse or partner lives there.52.0% of South Asian Americans aged 65 and older lived in the same household as a son or daughter aged 18 or older (90% interval 51.1 to 52.9), against 17.7% of all Americans that age, 13.1% of non-Hispanic white Americans and 36.4% of other Asian Americans. 36.1% were the parent or parent-in-law of the householder, and 7.4% lived alone, against 25.8% of all Americans 65 and older. In the 2023 ACS, Rahman and Rahman find 38.7% of Asia-born adults 65 and older living in a household with their offspring, against 14.5% of US-born older adults [14].

12.6% of South Asian Americans 65 and older had immigrated within the previous ten years, and 84.1% of them lived with an adult child, against 47.2% of older immigrants who had been in the US longer. Parents of US citizens aged 21 or older can obtain permanent residence as immediate relatives. The number of India-born parents of US citizens who obtained it rose from 10,160 in fiscal 2022 to 19,210 in fiscal 2023 and was 18,910 in fiscal 2024 [15].

What these data cannot show

The spouse comparisons describe marriages intact at the time of each survey, including those made before migration. Marriage timing rests on the year of the most recent marriage and the year of arrival. The ACS asks people who came to live in the US more than once for the latest year [16], so a marriage made between an earlier stay and the latest arrival counts as before arrival, and arrival age is the age at the latest arrival. When either year is missing, the Census Bureau imputes it from another respondent with similar characteristics, and the extract does not flag imputed values [5, 6]. Spouses are compared only when they live in the same household. The definition by single race leaves out South Asian Americans who report more than one race, who include many children of mixed marriages (chapter 6), and US-born adults cannot be divided into second and later generations because the ACS does not ask where adults' parents were born. Of married South Asian Americans living with their spouse, 0.7% had a spouse of the same sex; they are counted with all others.

The ACS asks women aged 15 to 50 whether they had a baby in the past 12 months. For women aged 15 to 44 in 2012, the ACS count of births was 2% above the registered count overall and about 4% below it for Asian and Pacific Islander women [17]. Arrival age comes from the year of immigration, and the comparisons across ages describe different people at the same time, not the same people as they age.

Appendix tables

Figure 7

For all, Asian, non-Hispanic white, South Asian and Indian Americans, this chapter's 2024 estimates are within 0.3 points of the published marital-status shares

For the same groups, household sizes are within 0.01 people of the published values. 2024 ACS: this chapter's estimate and the published S0201 value for marital status, average household size and women with a birth in the past year

Table of nine groups in 2024 comparing this chapter's estimates with the Census Bureau's published S0201 values for the now married, never married and divorced shares, average household size and women with a birth in the past year per 1,000 women 15 to 50. Total population: now married 47.9 against 47.9 percent, never married 34.8 against 34.8, divorced 10.3 against 10.3, household size 2.50 against 2.50, women with a birth 49.8 against 49.9 per 1,000; Asian alone: now married 58.1 against 58.0 percent, never married 31.3 against 31.4, divorced 5.3 against 5.2, household size 2.80 against 2.80, women with a birth 47.1 against 46.5 per 1,000; White alone, not Hispanic: now married 52.8 against 52.8 percent, never married 28.4 against 28.4, divorced 11.3 against 11.3, household size 2.34 against 2.33, women with a birth 49.3 against 49.5 per 1,000; South Asian: now married 65.8 against 65.7 percent, never married 27.2 against 27.5, divorced 3.0 against 2.9, household size 2.95 against 2.95, women with a birth 54.7 against 53.2 per 1,000; Asian Indian: now married 66.1 against 66.0 percent, never married 26.9 against 27.1, divorced 3.0 against 3.0, household size 2.85 against 2.85, women with a birth 50.3 against 48.5 per 1,000; Pakistani: now married 61.9 against 61.8 percent, never married 29.9 against 30.4, divorced 3.2 against 3.1, household size 3.49 against 3.47, women with a birth 78.1 against 73.4 per 1,000; Bangladeshi: now married 68.0 against 67.9 percent, never married 26.3 against 26.0, divorced 1.8 against 2.0, household size 3.45 against 3.42, women with a birth 67.0 against 61.7 per 1,000; Nepalese: now married 66.6 against 66.7 percent, never married 27.8 against 28.4, divorced 2.4 against 2.2, household size 3.31 against 3.28, women with a birth 61.3 against 67.5 per 1,000; Sri Lankan: now married 63.2 against 63.4 percent, never married 27.1 against 28.1, divorced 3.3 against 3.0, household size 2.65 against 2.60, women with a birth 92.1 against 78.3 per 1,000.

2024 ACS	Now married, % (this chapter)	Published	Never married, %	Published	Divorced, %	Published	Average household size	Published	Women with a birth in the past year per 1,000 women 15–50	Published
Total population	47.9	47.9	34.8	34.8	10.3	10.3	2.50	2.50	49.8	49.9
Asian alone	58.1	58.0	31.3	31.4	5.3	5.2	2.80	2.80	47.1	46.5
White alone, not Hispanic	52.8	52.8	28.4	28.4	11.3	11.3	2.34	2.33	49.3	49.5
South Asian	65.8	65.7	27.2	27.5	3.0	2.9	2.95	2.95	54.7	53.2
Asian Indian	66.1	66.0	26.9	27.1	3.0	3.0	2.85	2.85	50.3	48.5
Pakistani	61.9	61.8	29.9	30.4	3.2	3.1	3.49	3.47	78.1	73.4
Bangladeshi	68.0	67.9	26.3	26.0	1.8	2.0	3.45	3.42	67.0	61.7
Nepalese	66.6	66.7	27.8	28.4	2.4	2.2	3.31	3.28	61.3	67.5
Sri Lankan	63.2	63.4	27.1	28.1	3.3	3.0	2.65	2.60	92.1	78.3

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Data sources

• American Community Survey 1-year samples (IPUMS USA)1-year samples 2005 to 2024, with the supplementary extract that adds each person's spouse and parent locations (SPLOC, MOMLOC, POPLOC), relationship to the householder, multigenerational household codes and births in the past year [2]Years: 2005 to 2024 · Weights: PERWT, with the 80 replicate weights REPWTP; households by HHWT
• American Community Survey 1-year samples pooled over three years (IPUMS USA)1-year samples 2022 to 2024, supplementary extract with the year of the most recent marriage (YRMARR), marriage in the past year (MARRINYR) and number of marriages (MARRNO) (IPUMS USA extract 17, November 2026) [2, 5]Years: 2005 to 2007 and 2022 to 2024 · Weights: PERWT, with replicate weights paired across years
• US Census Bureau published ACS tablesSelected Population Profiles (S0201), 2024, for the validation table [1]Years: 2020 to 2024 · Weights: published weighted estimates with 90% margins of error

Methods

Groups. South Asian American: single-race RACED 610 (Asian Indian), 678 (Asian Indian with another Asian group) or 657 (Sikh, a write-in coded only in 2023), all counted as Indian; 669 (Pakistani), 664 (Bangladeshi), 643 (Nepali, coded from 2012), 670 (Sri Lankan) or 641 (Bhutanese, coded from 2012). Other Asian American: single-race Asian outside these codes, including Afghan respondents, coded as Asian groups not listed separately in 2022–23 and as Afghan (RACED 655) in 2024, as in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7. Non-Hispanic white: RACE 1 and HISPAN 0. Immigrants are those not US citizens at birth (CITIZEN 2 to 5); US-born are those born in the US or its territories (CITIZEN 0). People born abroad to American parents (CITIZEN 1) are in the group totals but in neither nativity group. Arrival age is YRIMMIG minus the birth year (survey year minus age).

Marriage. Married: MARST 1 or 2. Never married: 6. Divorced or separated: 3 or 4. Divorce and separation at 35 to 64 are standardized to the South Asian American distribution across five-year age groups. Spouses are linked through SPLOC to the spouse's own record in the household; categories use the spouse's RACED, RACE and HISPAN. Measures count married people, not couples. The trend pools single years 2005–2009 and 2021–2024 for the period comparison.

Marriage timing. For people married with the spouse present, YRMARR (year of the most recent marriage, from a supplementary extract for 2022–2024) is compared with YRIMMIG: before arrival if earlier, in the arrival year if equal, after arrival if later. Married in the previous five years means YRMARR is the survey year or one of the four before it. Every ever-married record in the extract has a marriage year, and the extract's married-in-the-past-year flag agrees with it in every case.

Households. Average household size is the household population (person weights) divided by the number of households (householder weights), with households classified by the householder's race, as in the Census Bureau's tables. Multigenerational: MULTGEND 31, three or more generations under the Census Bureau's definition, as a share of people in households. Living with an adult child: someone aged 18 or older in the household whose MOMLOC or POPLOC points to the person, or the person is recorded as the parent of a householder aged 18 or older, or as the householder's parent-in-law when the householder's spouse or unmarried partner lives in the household. Living alone: a one-person household. Children with two parents: both MOMLOC and POPLOC present; IPUMS links stepparents, adoptive parents and a parent's unmarried partner as parents, and children of two mothers or two fathers are not counted. Two married parents adds that the mother's spouse is the father.

Births. FERTYR 2 among women answering the question, which records whether a woman had a baby in the past 12 months, not how many. The age-standardized rate weights five-year age-specific rates at 15 to 49 by the age distribution of all American women. Unmarried mothers are never married, widowed or divorced, as in the Census Bureau's tables.

Uncertainty. Intervals use the 80 successive-difference replicate weights, Var = 4/80 × Σ(θᵣ − θ)², pairing replicate r across pooled years [18]. The non-Hispanic white and all-American rows are computed without replicates because their samples are large. The 2020 sample used experimental weights and has no interval. Intervals are 90%. Cells with fewer than 50 records are suppressed and those with fewer than 200 are marked †.

Validation. For 2024 alone, the same code gives marital-status shares within 0.3 percentage points and average household sizes within 0.01 people of the Census Bureau's Selected Population Profiles (S0201) for all, Asian, non-Hispanic white, South Asian and Indian Americans, and rates of women with a birth within 0.6 per 1,000 for all, Asian and non-Hispanic white Americans. For the smaller South Asian origin groups the public-use sample differs more, up to 1.0 points on marital status and 0.05 people on household size, and for South Asian Americans and every origin group up to 13.8 per 1,000 on the birth rate, each within the public-use sample's own 90% margin of error. Published birth rates are computed from the table's counts.

Reproduction. south-asian-voters/chapters/07-households-marriage/build_data.py computes every number and writes data.json; build_page.py and charts.js assemble this page; refs.json holds the references, quoted outside figures and the published 2024 values.

References

1. US Census Bureau (2026). Selected Population Profile in the United States (Table S0201), 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates; population groups Total population, Asian alone, White alone not Hispanic or Latino, South Asian alone, Asian Indian alone, Pakistani alone, Bangladeshi alone, Nepalese alone and Sri Lankan alone. data.census.gov, accessed November 7, 2026. data.census.gov/table/ACSSPP1Y2024.S0201?t=001&g=010XX00US
2. Ruggles, S.; Flood, S.; Sobek, M.; Backman, D.; Cooper, G.; Rivera Drew, J. A.; Richards, S.; Rodgers, R.; Schroeder, J.; Williams, K. C. W. (2025). IPUMS USA: Version 16.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS. doi:10.18128/D010.V16.0
3. IPUMS USA (2026). SPLOC: Spouse's location in household, and Family interrelationships, variable descriptions. IPUMS USA. usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/SPLOC
4. Im, C. (2025). Facts about Indians in the U.S.. Pew Research Center fact sheet, May 1, 2025. www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/fact-sheet/asian-americans-indians-in-the-u-s/
5. IPUMS USA (2026). YRMARR: Year married, variable description and comparability notes. IPUMS USA. usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/YRMARR
6. IPUMS USA (2026). YRIMMIG: Year of immigration, variable description. IPUMS USA. usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/YRIMMIG
7. Livingston, G.; Brown, A. (2017). Intermarriage in the U.S. 50 Years After Loving v. Virginia. Pew Research Center, May 18, 2017. www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/05/Intermarriage-May-2017-Full-Report.pdf
8. Badrinathan, S.; Kapur, D.; Kay, J.; Vaishnav, M. (2021). Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, June 9, 2021. carnegieendowment.org/research/2021/06/social-realities-of-indian-americans-results-from-the-2020-indian-american-attitudes-survey
9. Gullickson, A. (2022). Patterns of Panethnic Intermarriage in the United States, 1980–2018. Demography 59(5): 1929–1951. doi:10.1215/00703370-10218826
10. Pew Research Center (2012). The Rise of Asian Americans. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, June 19, 2012 (revised July 12, 2012), table "Asian Intermarriage," p. 32. www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2012/06/19/the-rise-of-asian-americans/
11. Qian, Z.; Qian, Y. (2020). Generation, education, and intermarriage of Asian Americans. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46(14): 2880–2895. doi:10.1080/1369183X.2019.1585006
12. Washington, C.; Gryn, T.; Anderson, L.; Kreider, R. M. (2023). In 2020, 7.2% of U.S. Family Households Were Multigenerational. America Counts, US Census Bureau, June 13, 2023. www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/06/several-generations-under-one-roof.html
13. IPUMS USA (2026). MULTGEN: Multigenerational household, variable description and codes. IPUMS USA (MULTGEND 31: three or more generations, Census Bureau definition). usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/MULTGEN
14. Rahman, Mahir; Rahman, Momotazur (2026). Disability and living arrangements among older immigrants in the US: Evidence from the American Community Survey. Health Affairs Scholar 4(3): qxag043. doi:10.1093/haschl/qxag043
15. US Department of Homeland Security, Office of Homeland Security Statistics (2026). Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Region and Country of Birth and Major Class of Admission: FY 2005 to 2024 [workbook]. Sheet "Immediate Relatives-Parents" (classes IR0, IR5, IB0, IB5), posted July 15, 2026. ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/lawful-permanent-residents/lprs-country-birth-and-major-classes-admission
16. US Census Bureau (2024). American Community Survey 2024 questionnaire (form ACS-1). Question 9, "When did this person come to live in the United States?", and question 24, "In what year did this person last get married?". www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/methodology/questionnaires/2024/quest24.pdf
17. Monte, L. M.; Ellis, R. R. (2014). Fertility of Women in the United States: 2012. Current Population Reports P20-575, US Census Bureau, July 2014, Appendix Table B. www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/demo/p20-575.pdf
18. IPUMS USA (2026). Replicate Weights in the American Community Survey / Puerto Rican Community Survey. IPUMS USA. usa.ipums.org/usa/repwt.shtml

How to cite

@misc{singh2026householdsmarriage,
  author = {Singh, Vishal},
  title = {Marriage and households among South Asian Americans},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://vishalsingh.org/south-asians/households-marriage},
  note = {South Asians in America, chapter 5. Published 7 November 2026.}
}

Acknowledgments

ACS microdata are from IPUMS USA, University of Minnesota. IPUMS is not responsible for the analysis here.