Indian Community • United States
Where Gujarati Families Live in America
466,000 Gujarati speakers nationwide • New Jersey holds 18% of them • The most concentrated Indian community in America
Of all the Indian communities in America, Gujaratis are the most geographically concentrated. There are 466,000 Gujarati speakers in the United States (ACS 2024), and nearly one in five of them lives in New Jersey. If you are choosing a metro, that concentration is the single most important fact to understand — it changes what community life looks like in a way raw population counts do not capture.
Last updated: August 2026 • All Indian community guides →
The Short Answer
New Jersey is the centre of Gujarati America, and nothing else is close. With 83,883 Gujarati speakers it holds roughly 18% of the entire US Gujarati population — nearly double the next metro. Edison, Iselin and the Oak Tree Road corridor form the densest Gujarati geography anywhere outside India, and New Jersey prints election ballots in Gujarati.
Chicago is a clear second at 45,133, anchored on Schaumburg and the northwest suburbs. After that the Bay Area, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles form a cluster the data cannot cleanly separate.
One thing distinguishes Gujarati settlement from every other Indian community: it did not follow the tech industry. It followed business ownership — motels, hotels, retail, diamonds and pharmacy — which is why the map looks different from the Telugu or Tamil one.
Where Gujarati America Actually Is
Gujarati speakers aged five and over, from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. We aggregated these metro totals ourselves from Public Use Microdata Area data, because the Census does not publish detailed language tables at metro level.
| Metro | Gujarati speakers | What defines it | State income tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| The centre of Gujarati America | |||
| New Jersey | 83,883±3,827 | 18% of all US Gujarati speakers. Ballots are printed in Gujarati, and BAPS Akshardham in Robbinsville is the largest Hindu temple in the Western hemisphere. | Yes |
| A clear second | |||
| Chicago | 45,133±2,715 | Schaumburg alone has 5,491 Gujarati speakers — about 45% of the suburb’s Indian-language total. | Yes |
| The middle cluster — too close to rank | |||
| Bay Area | 22,973±1,926 | Centred on Fremont, where Indian ancestry runs near 29%. The Gujarati Cultural Association dates to 1979. | Yes |
| Atlanta | 20,162±1,961 | Headquarters of AAHOA, whose 20,000 members own roughly 60% of American hotels. The BAPS mandir is a Lilburn landmark. | Yes |
| Houston | 18,592±2,396 | The BAPS mandir here was assembled from 33,000 hand-carved marble pieces. Navratri garba draws thousands. | None |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | 18,551±1,875 | BAPS Mandir Irving since 2010; DFW Gujarati Samaj since 1991. | None |
| Los Angeles | 17,708±1,904 | SCGCS has run since 1971. BAPS Chino Hills, opened 2012, was the first earthquake-engineered mandir in North America. | Yes |
| Smaller but established | |||
| Washington DC | 9,598±1,088 | BAPS Mandir Chantilly opened in 2017, serving the Northern Virginia corridor. | Yes |
| Seattle | 5,199±897 | Bellevue is the core. BAPS Redmond has operated since 2014. | None |
| Austin | 4,977±977 | BAPS mandir since 2007, Gujarati Samaj since 1993, and a Navratri drawing around a thousand people. | None |
Read the margins, not just the ranks. Census estimates carry a margin of error, shown here at 90% confidence. New Jersey and Chicago hold their positions unambiguously. The middle five — Bay Area, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles — overlap and cannot honestly be ranked against one another. We group metros into tiers for that reason.
Two big metros we do not cover yet
New York City has 17,020 Gujarati speakers and Boston has 9,841 — both comparable to or larger than our Washington DC, Seattle and Austin guides, and neither has an Indian city guide on this site yet. There are also substantial Gujarati populations in Michigan (Wayne County), suburban Pennsylvania (Bucks and Montgomery counties) and Raleigh-Durham. Our ten metros hold about half of America’s Gujarati speakers; the other half live somewhere we have not written about yet.
What these numbers are, and what they are not
This counts people who speak Gujarati at home. It misses second- and third-generation Gujarati Americans raised in English, and the Gujarati community has been in the United States long enough that this undercount is larger than for more recently arrived groups. Treat these figures as a way to compare metros, not as a community census.
Which City Fits Your Situation
You want to be inside the community, not near it
New Jersey. The Oak Tree Road corridor in Edison and Iselin is not an Indian neighbourhood with Gujarati families in it — it is a Gujarati commercial district. Groceries, jewellers, sweet shops, clothing, professional services in your language. Nothing else in America is comparable.
You are buying or running a hotel or motel
Atlanta. AAHOA is headquartered here, and its members own roughly 60% of American hotels. If your family is in hospitality, the professional network runs through Atlanta regardless of where the property is.
You want New Jersey density at Midwest prices
Chicago. Schaumburg and the northwest suburbs hold the second-largest Gujarati population in the country, with a full institutional set — and housing costs a fraction of central New Jersey.
You are in tech
Bay Area, centred on Fremont. It is worth knowing that the Gujarati community here is smaller relative to other Indian communities than you might expect — the Bay Area is Telugu, Hindi and Tamil first. You will find a strong Gujarati community, but not a dominant one.
Temple access is your first priority
The BAPS mandir network makes this unusually easy: every metro in the table above has one. If scale matters, New Jersey’s Akshardham in Robbinsville is the largest Hindu temple in the Western hemisphere and draws visitors from across the country.
You want no state income tax
Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston both have established Gujarati communities, BAPS mandirs and large Navratri celebrations. Texas has long been a destination for Gujarati business families for exactly this reason.
The Institutions
BAPS — the network that defines Gujarati America
No other Indian community has anything structurally similar. BAPS Swaminarayan mandirs operate in every major metro, and they function as far more than temples: language classes, youth programmes, senior activities and community halls. For many families the local BAPS mandir is the entry point to the entire community. Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey is the largest Hindu temple in the Western hemisphere.
AAHOA — the business network
The Asian American Hotel Owners Association, headquartered in Atlanta, has roughly 20,000 members who collectively own about 60% of American hotels. It is overwhelmingly Gujarati, and it is the clearest example of how this community built economic infrastructure alongside cultural infrastructure.
Gujarati Samaj
Most metros have a Gujarati Samaj alongside the BAPS mandir, handling secular cultural programming — Navratri, language classes, youth events. Southern California’s dates to 1971, the Bay Area’s to 1979, Dallas-Fort Worth’s to 1991 and Austin’s to 1993.
How to Tell a Real Community From a Few Families
Navratri runs nine nights, not one
Garba during Navratri is the defining Gujarati event, and it is the clearest signal of community depth. A metro with a real Gujarati population holds garba across all nine nights, often in rented sports halls or convention centres. A few families means one evening in a community hall.
There is a BAPS mandir
BAPS builds where there is a community large enough to sustain one. The presence of a mandir — and especially a purpose-built one rather than a converted building — is a reliable indicator.
The grocery store sells farsan
Not just an Indian grocery. Fresh khaman, dhokla, fafda and jalebi made on site means the customer base is Gujarati specifically. In New Jersey and Chicago there are shops that do nothing else.
Business networks are visible
Gujarati community life in America is unusually intertwined with business ownership. Where you see hotel, retail and pharmacy networks operating in the language, the community has depth that a population count alone will not show you.
Common Questions
Which US state has the largest Gujarati population?
New Jersey, decisively. It has 83,883 Gujarati speakers — roughly 18% of the entire US Gujarati population, and nearly double the next-largest metro. New Jersey prints election ballots in Gujarati.
How many Gujarati speakers are there in the United States?
466,000, according to the 2024 American Community Survey. That counts people aged five and over who speak Gujarati at home, so the number who identify as Gujarati is considerably higher — this community has been established in America long enough that many second- and third-generation members speak English at home.
Why are so many American motels owned by Gujarati families?
It began with chain migration into hospitality from the 1960s onward and compounded through family financing networks and shared operational knowledge. Today AAHOA, headquartered in Atlanta, has around 20,000 members who own roughly 60% of American hotels. It is the defining economic story of Gujarati America.
Where is the largest Hindu temple in America?
BAPS Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey — the largest Hindu temple in the Western hemisphere. It sits at the centre of the country’s densest Gujarati population.
Is Gujarati concentrated differently from other Indian communities?
Yes, and this is the key thing to understand. Telugu and Tamil settlement followed the tech industry into Dallas, the Bay Area and Seattle. Gujarati settlement followed business ownership — hospitality, retail, pharmacy and diamonds — which produced a different map, anchored on New Jersey and Chicago rather than on tech corridors.
What about cities not on your list?
New York City (17,020) and Boston (9,841) both have larger Gujarati populations than several metros we do cover, and neither has a guide here yet. There are also significant communities in Michigan, suburban Pennsylvania and Raleigh-Durham.
Gujarati City Guides
Each guide covers neighbourhoods with Census data down to the suburb, mandirs, samaj organisations, Navratri, restaurants, grocery stores, language schools and cost of living for that specific metro.
- Gujarati in New Jersey — Edison, Iselin and the Oak Tree Road corridor
- Gujarati in Chicago — Schaumburg and the northwest suburbs
- Gujarati in the Bay Area — Fremont and the East Bay
- Gujarati in Atlanta — Lilburn, Alpharetta and the AAHOA network
- Gujarati in Houston — Sugar Land, Stafford and the southwest corridor
- Gujarati in Dallas-Fort Worth — Irving, Plano and the Metroplex
- Gujarati in Los Angeles — Artesia, Chino Hills and Southern California
- Gujarati in Washington DC — Chantilly and Northern Virginia
- Gujarati in Seattle — Bellevue, Redmond and the Eastside
- Gujarati in Austin — Round Rock and the tech corridor
Data Sources
Population figures: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 5-Year Estimates, Table B16001 (Language Spoken at Home), variable B16001_045 (Gujarati). Metro totals aggregated from Public Use Microdata Area data by constituent county, because the ACS does not publish detailed language tables at metropolitan level. Margins of error combined using the Census Bureau’s published method for aggregated estimates and shown at 90% confidence. Organisation founding dates verified against organisation websites. Community infrastructure details drawn from our individual city guides. Read our full research methodology →