Hinduism is a minority religion in the United States. American Hindus make up about 0.5% of the country's population. [1] Most of them are Indian-Americans, immigrants from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, the Caribbean, and other Asian countries, and their descendants. There are also a very small number of converted Hindus.

BAPS Sreeswaminarayan Temple, Chicago
Although Hindus came and went in the United States in the nineteenth century, the presence of Hindus in the United States was negligible before the Immigration and Nationality Services (NIS) Act of 1975 was passed.
Recently, Hindu-Americans live at a higher socioeconomic level than other religions in the United States. Their income levels are high and their educational qualifications are very high. [2] [3] The various concepts of Hinduism ― such as karmaism, reincarnationism, and yoga ― are now well-known to mainstream American public. [4] 24% of Americans believe in reincarnationism, one of the most important doctrines of Hinduism.

Swami Vivekananda at a meeting of the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893.
Swami Vivekananda addressed the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. He spent two years in the United States and lectured in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and New York. In 1902, her husband Ramtirtha came to the United States. He also preached Vedanta philosophy from that country for two years. [11] In 1920, Paramahansa Jogananda joined the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston as India's representative.
Prior to 1975, the number of Hindu settlers in the United States was negligible. At first tourists, students and businessmen used to come. The September 5, 1906 riots in Bellingham, Washington, proved that Indians and Hindus were not safe in the United States. Despite this, people of various professions used to work in that country. The passage of the Immigration and Nationality Services (NIS) Act of 1975 opened the door to the United States to Hindu investors.
Other neo-Hindu movements, including ISKCON, founded by Swami Prabhupada in the 1980s due to the US counter-culture movement, gained special importance. Other influential Indian Hindu missionaries are Chinmoy and Maharshi Mahesh Yogi.

US President Barack Obama receives a red shawl from a priest at the Shiva Vishnu Temple in Lanham, Maryland (October 2009)
During Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to the United States in September 2000, a prayer was recited in his honor in Sanskrit (including Hindi and English) at the beginning of a joint session of the US Congress. Venkatachalapati Samudrala read. The Sanskrit prayer was initiated by Ohio Congressman Sherrod Brown. [12] On July 12, 2006, Nevada's Hindu chaplain Rajan Jade recited another Hindu prayer in the U.S. Senate. [13] Obama lit the lamp at the White House.