Telugu Americans

In 2000, the Telugu population in the U.S. numbered around 87,543. By 2010, the number surged to 222,977 then 415,414 by 2017 and was 644,700 by 2020. The rise in Telugu population is attributed to the increasing representation of South Indian diaspora in technological field specially after Y2K.[3] Brookings Institution Report revealed that Telugu states sent over 26,000 students between 2008 and 2012, most pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM fields).

Telugu people now constitute one of the largest groups of Indian Americans.[4] The majority of Telugu Americans live in metropolitan areas with significant economic importance in STEM fields, industries in which many Telugus and other South Indian groups participate in. These areas include the San Francisco Bay Area, central New Jersey, Texas Triangle, Chicago, Seattle, the Delaware Valley and Northern Virginia and the Baltimore metropolitan area, with smaller but significant populations throughout the country in major metropolitan and micropolitan areas of almost every state.[5] Other metropolitan areas with growing numbers of Telugu Americans include those in Greater Boston, Kansas City, Metro Detroit, Greater Cleveland, and Minneapolis–Saint Paul.

The vast majority of Telugu Americans are Hindu, with a considerable who are Christian, and even smaller numbers who practice Islam.

The Telugu community in the United States is largely bilingual. A recent study by the US-based Center for Immigration Studies has shown Telugu as the fastest growing language in United States which has grown by 86% in the last seven years.[6] During the 2020 United States elections, the Telugu language was first listed on voter registration and ballot boxes in select locales.[7][8]

The U.S. states with the largest percentage of Telugu speakers are:

• New Jersey (0.35%)[9]
• Delaware (0.25%)[10]
• Virginia (0.25%)[11]
• Connecticut (0.18%)
• Illinois (0.17%)[12]
• Texas (0.16%)[13]
• California (0.15%)
• Maryland (0.15%)
• Georgia (0.14%)[14]
• New Hampshire (0.13%)[15]
• Washington (0.13%)
• Massachusetts (0.13%)
• Kansas (0.13%)[16]
• Michigan (0.12%)[17]
• Minnesota (0.11%)[18]
• North Carolina (0.10%)[19]
• Arizona (0.10%)
• Pennsylvania (0.09%)
• Ohio (0.07%)[20]

Telugu Americans have suffered from hate crimes in America. The most notable of these incidents was the 2017 Olathe, Kansas shooting, in which a white supremacist, Adam Purinton, harassed two Telugu immigrants, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, under the pretense that Kuchibhotla and Madasani were Iranians or illegal immigrants; later shooting them, killing Kuchibhotla and wounding Madasani as well as Ian Grillot, a white American who had come to the defense of Kuchibhotla and Madasani. A victim of the 2023 Allen, Texas outlet mall shooting, Aishwarya Thatikonda, was a Telugu immigrant from Hyderabad who had moved to Dallas.