Karen Americans
ကညီအမဲရကၤဖိ | |
|---|---|
Karen flag | |
| Total population | |
| 215,000 (2024, est.) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Minnesota (Minneapolis–Saint Paul) Indiana (Indianapolis, Fort Wayne) New York (Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica), California (San Francisco Bay Area), Nebraska, (Omaha, Lincoln), Texas (Austin, Houston, Dallas, Amarillo) North Carolina (Chapel Hill, New Bern), Utah (Salt Lake City) | |
| Languages | |
| Karen languages (S'gaw Karen, Karenni, Pa'O), English | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Christianity (especially Baptist and Seventh-day Adventist; other denominations include Reformed Christian, Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Mormonism); minorities of Buddhism and Animism |
Karen Americans (S'gaw Karen: ကညီအမဲရကၤဖိ) are Americans of full or partial Karen ancestry. They are a recent but rapidly growing immigrant population in the United States. Many Karen who emigrate are refugees as a result of violence in their homeland. Many come either from their traditional homeland of Kawthoolei in Myanmar or from refugee camps in Thailand.
Minnesota had more than 20,000 Karen residents in 2025, making it the state with the largest Karen community. Other states with significant populations are California, Texas, New York, and Indiana.
Karen first started arriving in the United States en masse during the mid-2000s and now form a significant minority in several cities. The growth of Karen Americans is part of the larger growth of Burmese Americans in the United States.
The Karenni, a related subgroup of the Karen, are sometimes included in official statistics of Karen Americans and other times are treated as a separate ethnicity.