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Language

While the majority of Filipino nationals and Fil-Ams do speak English fluently, most also speak Tagalog, Visayan, Taglish and Ilocano at home. Tagalog is the sixth most spoken language in the United States with more than two million speakers.

Educational attainment

Fil-Ams have the tendency to be highly educated. Forty percent of adult Filipino Americans are college and university graduates holding advanced degrees in the arts and sciences. Filipino-American high school students have one of the highest graduation rates. They are known to perform well in state-given exams as well as the SAT and Advanced Placement Examinations.

Many of the newer generations of Filipino Americans born in the United States gravitate towards business and the professionals such as architecture, business administration, economics, education, engineering, medicine and nursing. Filipino American students end up in professional careers yielding higher incomes and better well-being.

Economics

As a result of their educational attainment, many Filipino Americans are now in the upper middle class and the community enjoys substantial economic well-being. This is especially true for those working in nursing where the United States suffers shortages. Filipino-Americans have the highest average income per household among Asian-Americans and minority groups in the United States and can be comparable to their Caucasian counterparts.

Filipino-Americans are also known to be business-owners. Many are in the restaurant business, while others are in the medical, dental and optical fields have their own offices. They are also known as retailers and store owners. Filipino-Americans are also the highest remitters of US dollars to the Philippines. In 2005, the Filipino-American collective dollar remittances reached a record high of US$5.6 billion.

The buying power of the Filipino-American community is at US$57 billion dollars. This, however, is underserved because of their invisibility to American society. Many are also urged to invest back in the Philippines in order to help the local economy. More than half of the population are homeowners but many Filipino-Americans opt to return to the Philippines upon retirement.

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