Portrait of Arab America
About the Report
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
This report contains the best available and most comprehensive data on Arab and Chaldean Americans.
The report provides national and regional portraits of Arab Americans as a group and separately by ancestry, in order to identify strengths and vulnerabilities in diverse communities.
The data in this report is drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), for the years 2015-2019.
Commissioned by the Center for Arab Narratives (CAN), an institution of ACCESS. The report was compiled by Dr. Jenʼnan Read (Duke University) and Dr. Kristine Ajrouch (University of Michigan) with assistance from Simon Brauer (University of Michigan).
Key Findings
Largest Ancestry Groups
Lebanese
Egyptian
Iraqi
Classification Challenges
Until March 2024, the federal Office of Management and Budget’s official classification schema for race and ethnicity placed Arab ancestry groups under the White racial category. This has hindered research on Arab Americans at the national level and required researchers to be innovative in their data collection efforts at the local level.
Challenges and Disparities
Many Arab Americans face higher unemployment, poverty, and lack of health insurance compared to white people, but it varies by geographic region in the U.S. This report can help drive new research and interventions in localities with high disparity.
The Roots of Arab American Diaspora
- 12 countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Kuwait, and Libya);
- 5 ethnicities (Arab, Arabic, Assyrian, Chaldean, Kurdish);
- 2 geographic regions (Middle East, North Africa);
- 1 category of “other Arab” that contains 15 ancestry groups: (Tunisian, Alhucemas, Berber, Rio De Oro, Bahraini, Omani, Muscat, Trucial States, Qatar, Bedouin, Kuria Muria Islander, South Yemen, Aden, United Arab Emirates, and Syriac).
Arab American Households
The majority of Arab American households (33%) consist of four or more family members and are also more likely (66%) to have two generations present.
Health by the Numbers
According to national data, approximately 22% of Arab Americans aged 50 and above have a disability. In addition, only about half of Arab Americans (about 57%) have private insurance compared to over two-thirds of hites (about 71%)
Important to Note
- Research shows that advocacy efforts can greatly benefit from understanding the diversity within groups categorized as White. This highlights the importance of directing greater attention towards vulnerable subgroups that fall under this broad racial category.
- The current national data categorizes Arab Americans as White according to the Office of Management and Budget’s official standards for measuring race and ethnicity. This classification schema was last updated in March 2024, marking the first change since 1997.
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