According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2020, there were 1,989,519 Korean Americans who self-reported as “Korean alone or in any combination.” By 2022, the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimated that this number had grown to 2,051,572, an increase of 62,053 individuals in just two years.
Among the over 2 million Korean Americans, 984,605 (48%) were born in America, while 1,066,967 were born outside of the United States. The 2024 Census report identified 1,042,199 people born in Korea, with 689,165 of them having become U.S. citizens.
The Pew Research Center estimates that there are approximately 150,000 undocumented Koreans, bringing the total of all Korean individuals in the U.S. to 2.2 million. Within this group, just over 1.7 million are native-born or naturalized American citizens.
The national Korean American community consists of 2.2 million people, with 24% under 18 years old and thus ineligible to vote, and approximately 500,000 unable to vote due to their legal status.
A 2022 Migration Policy Institute study claims that Korean immigrants make up the tenth largest immigrant population in the U.S. and the fifth largest group from Asia.
Although the first wave of Korean immigration began in 1903 and the second wave followed in 1950, the total number of Koreans in America in 1960 was less than 25,000. After the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed national-origin quotas, immigration from Korea increased by 2,600%, from 11,000 in 1960 to 290,000 in 1980, reaching 568,000 in 2000 and 1.1 million in 2010.
Professor Taeku Lee identified that while immigration from Korea rose rapidly from the early twentieth century to its peak between 1970 and 1980, it has since slowed down significantly. He concludes that while Asian Americans will continue to grow as a proportion of the total U.S. population, Korean Americans will shrink as a proportion of the larger Asian American community.
The most recent Census report indicates that while the total Korean American population is still increasing, the number of Korean-born immigrants has been declining. More than half of all Korean-born immigrants (625,585 out of 1,042,199) came to the U.S. before 2000, with 218,890 arriving between 2000-2009 and only 188,825 since 2010.
Historically, Korean Americans settled in coastal regions like California and New York. However, in the past two decades, they have dispersed beyond these areas, following trends identified by the Census Bureau. States like California, New York, Illinois, and Maryland have seen the largest outflows of Korean-born residents, while Texas, Alabama, Washington, and Nevada have seen an increase.
Today, Korean-born Americans are present in all 50 states, with the top 10 by proportion of their state’s population being Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Washington, Virginia, Maryland, Alaska, New York, Georgia, and Nevada.
Slightly more than 54% of Korean Americans are married, with an average of three members in a family. The age distribution skews older, with nearly 76% of the population being 18 or older and 13.5% being over age 65.