<P> South Vietnamese immigration to the United States began after the Vietnam War ended in 1975 . Early immigrants were refugee boat people, fleeing persecution or seeking economic opportunities . More than fifty percent of Vietnamese Americans reside in the states of California and Texas . </P> <P> According to U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income for Vietnamese Americans was $64,191 in 2016 In 2015, 30% of Vietnamese Americans had attained a bachelor's degree or higher . Specifically, 21% of Vietnamese Americans had attained a bachelor's degree (37% for U.S. born Vietnamese and 18% for Foreign born Vietnamese) and 8.9% had attained a Postgraduate degree (14% for U.S. born Vietnamese and 7% for Foreign born Vietnamese) compared to 19% Bachelor's degree attainment and 11% Postgraduate degree attainment among the American population in general . As a relatively - recent immigrant group, most Vietnamese Americans are either first or second generation Americans . As many as one million people five years of age and older speak Vietnamese at home, making it the seventh-most - spoken language in the U.S. In the 2012 American Community Survey (ACS), 76 percent of foreign - born Vietnamese are naturalized U.S. citizens (compared to 67 percent of people from Southeast Asia and 46 percent of the total U.S. foreign - born population). Of those born outside the United States, 73.1 percent entered before 2000, 21.2 percent from 2000 and 2009 and 5.7 percent after 2010 . </P> <P> In 2016 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the total population of Vietnamese American was 2,067,527 (92.9% reporting one race, 6.5% reporting two races, 0.5% reporting three races, and 0.1% reporting four or more races). California and Texas had the highest concentrations of Vietnamese Americans: 40 and 12 percent, respectively . Other states with concentrations of Vietnamese Americans were Washington, Florida (four percent each) and Virginia (three percent). The largest number of Vietnamese outside Vietnam is in Orange County, California (184,153, or 6.1 percent of the county's population), followed by Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties; the three counties accounted for 26 percent of the Vietnamese immigrant population in the United States . Many Vietnamese American businesses exist in the Little Saigon of Westminster and Garden Grove, where Vietnamese Americans make up 40.2 and 27.7 percent of the population respectively . About 41 percent of the Vietnamese immigrant population lives in five major metropolitan areas: in descending order, Los Angeles, San Jose, Houston, San Francisco and Dallas - Fort Worth . The Vietnamese immigration pattern has shifted to other states, including Denver, Boston, Chicago, Oklahoma (Oklahoma City and Tulsa in particular) and Oregon (Portland in particular). </P> <Table> <Tr> <Th_colspan="3"> Historical population </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Year </Th> <Th> Pop . </Th> <Th> ±% </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> 1980 </Th> <Td> 261,729 </Td> <Td>--</Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> </Th> <Td> 614,517 </Td> <Td> + 134.8% </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> 2000 </Th> <Td> 1,122,528 </Td> <Td> + 82.7% </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> </Th> <Td> 1,548,449 </Td> <Td> + 37.9% </Td> </Tr> </Table>

How many vietnamese immigrants are in the united states