Pegged at $65,189 per annum, Filipinos in the United States rank third among Asians in terms of median family income, according to the U.S. Census Bureau last month.
Since 1999, the census said Filipinos have had the lowest poverty rate among Asians. One of the reasons was that Filipinos have the highest labor force participation in the United States.
There are 2.4 million Filipinos in the United States, the census said, accounting for 0.85 percent of the total U.S. population and 18.3 percent of the Asian population. Filipinos have the second largest Asian population in the United States.
Of that figure, however, there are about 85,000 undocumented Filipino immigrants in the country. According to the census, Filipinos rank ninth among the ethnic groups with undocumented presence. Mexico remains in the lead, with 4.8 million undocumented.
Among the Asian groups, Chinese – with 115,000 undocumented – rank sixth.
In terms of acquiring U.S. citizenship, Filipinos are the most diligent, with the lowest proportion of noncitizens among close to 12 million Asians.
According to the report, 65 percent of Filipino women aged 16 and older are working, far exceeding the national average of 57.5 percent among women in the United States and the 56.4 percent participation rate among Asian-American women.
Filipino men, however, rank lower than Filipino women in terms of earning capacity. Their median earnings was pegged at $35,560 as of 1999, ranked sixth among Asian men. With the Asian average at $40,650, Asian Indian men took the top slot with median earnings of $51,904, followed by Japanese men at $50,876 and Chinese, $44,831.
Filipino men are also outranked by other Asian men, particularly South Asian Indians and Pakistanis, in terms of earning capacity.
The report said most Filipinos are in management and professional jobs in the United States. About 30 percent are in sales and office jobs, while 17.5 percent in service occupations.
As of September 2002, the largest concentration of Filipinos is in California. Other states with big Filipino population include New York, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Hawaii.
