The number of Nepalis obtaining US citizenship has almost doubled in just five years

The Nepali immigrant community is one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. Statistics from the Department of Homeland Security shows that the number of Nepalis obtaining US citizenship has almost doubled in just five years. Looking at the statistics from the beginning to 2015, 25,399 Nepalis had obtained US citizenship, while in the last five years, 28,064 Nepalis have obtained US citizenship.

The number of Nepalis acquiring US citizenship in the five years after 2015 is higher than the number of Nepalis acquiring US citizenship in the 30 years before 2015. Including the statistics of 2021, the number of Nepalis applying for US citizenship has reached 60,000.

That doesn’t include US-born data.

If you look at the statistics up to 2016, the number of Nepalis who got American citizenship was about 30,000. In the next five years, that number has risen to nearly 60,000.

Despite the Corona epidemic, 5,790 Nepalis obtained US citizenship in fiscal year 2020 according to the DHS.

In fiscal year 2019, the number of Nepalis who succeeded in obtaining US citizenship was 7,409. Of them, 3,577 were women and 3,832 were men. Of those, 810 were from New York, 1,204 from Texas and 601 from California.

In 2018, 5,352 Nepalis across the United States obtained US citizenship. At that time, the highest number of 718 Nepalis living in New York took American citizenship, followed by 570 from Texas and 534 from California. Similarly, in 2017, the number of Nepalis obtained US citizenship was 4509. There were 560 New Yorkers and 520 Californians at the time.

In 2016, 5,004 Nepalis obtained US citizenship. Of those, 629 were from New York, and 655 Nepalis from Texas took American citizenship that year. By 1990, there were only 2,616 Nepalis who had succeeded in obtaining US citizenship according to DHS. At that time, in the year 1990, a total of 37 Nepalis had obtained American citizenship.

Before that, in 1989, 35 Nepalis had obtained American citizenship. A total of 31 people obtained American citizenship in 1988 and 22 in 1987. In 1991, the number of Nepalis receiving Americans increased slightly to 56. In 1992, 44 Nepalis obtained US citizenship.

In 1993, 46 people got American citizenship, in 1994, 70 people, in 1995, 60 people, in 1996, 119 people, in 1997, 78 people, and in 1998, 82 Nepalis got American citizenship. In 1999, 143 people obtained American citizenship, in 2001, 205 people, in 2002, 247 people, in 2003, 318 people, and in 2004, 408 people became American citizens.

In 2005, 417 people, in 2006, 575 people, in 2007, 638 people, in 2008, 953 people, in 2009, 1632 people, in 2010, 2185 people, and in 2011, 2235 people got American citizenship.  Similarly, in 2012, 2448 Nepalis had obtained American citizenship. In 2013, the number of Nepalis applying for US citizenship was 2,711. In 2014, 2,888 Nepalis obtained US citizenship, while in 2015, 4,225 Nepalis obtained US citizenship.

According to Pew Research, the number of Nepalis living in the United States in 2019 was about 200,000.  Various statistics have shown that this number has increased further. According to DHS, apart from those who have obtained citizenship in the United States, about 100,00 Nepalis are green card holders.