Demographics of Asian Americans

Proportion of Asian Americans in each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census
Proportion of Asian Americans in each county of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census

The demographics of Asian Americans describe a heterogeneous group of people in the United States who trace their ancestry to one or more Asian countries.

Manilamen began to reside in Louisiana as the first Asian Americans to live in the continental in the United States. Most Asian Americans have arrived after 1965. These individuals make up one-quarter of all immigrants who have arrived in the U.S. since 1965, and 59% of Asian Americans are foreign-born. During the 2010 United States Census the largest ethnic groups were Chinese American, Filipino Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, and Japanese Americans.

The 2020 United States Census reported approximately 19.9 million people identified as Asian alone in 2020. Adding in the 4.1 million respondents who identified as Asian in combination with another race group, the Asian American population comprised 24 million people (7.2% of the total population).

The overall population is highly urbanized and is concentrated in the West Coast of the United States and New York metropolitan area. Generally, Asian Americans are well educated, and Asian American households have higher average incomes. However, socioeconomic status is not uniform among their population. Asian Americans hold diverse religious views, with substantial numbers being religiously unaffiliated or secular, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim. About 4-5% of Asian Americans identify as LGBT.

Background

The first recorded Asian Americans in the continental United States were a group of Filipino men who established the small settlement of Saint Malo, Louisiana, after fleeing mistreatment aboard Spanish ships. Since there were no women with them, the Manilamen, as they were known, married Cajun and Native American women. In 1778, Chinese and European explorers first arrived in Hawaii. Numerous Chinese and Japanese began immigrating to the US in the mid-19th century; numerous Chinese immigrants worked as laborers on the First transcontinental railroad, many who immigrated due to overpopulation and poverty experienced in Guangdong (Canton). In the mid-20th century, refugees from Southeast Asia fled wars in the homelands to come to the United States. Most Asian Americans who immigrated to the United States arrived after 1965, due to immigration reform that ended an earlier era of exclusion of Asian immigrants.

Population

Asian population density
Historical population
YearPop.±%
186034,933—    
187063,254+81.1%
1880105,613+67.0%
1890109,527+3.7%
1900114,189+4.3%
1910146,863+28.6%
1920182,137+24.0%
1930264,766+45.4%
1940254,918−3.7%
1950321,033+25.9%
1960980,337+205.4%
19701,538,721+57.0%
19803,500,439+127.5%
19906,908,638+97.4%
200011,896,828+72.2%
201017,320,856+45.6%
202024,000,998+38.6%
Sources
  • Beginning in 2000 and continuing through the latest census, figures now include Multiracial Asian American Americans
    1910, 1920, 1930, 1960, 1970, and 1980 include Pacific Islands American population numbers

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Asian American population, including those of multiracial and Hispanic and Latino ancestry, per its 2017 American Community Survey was about 22,408,464.

During the 2010 United States Census, there were a total of 17,320,856 Asian Americans, including Multiracial Americans identifying as part Asian. This made Asian Americans 5.6 percent of the total American population. The largest ethnic groups represented in the census were Chinese (3.79 million), Filipino (3.41 million), Indian (3.18 million), Vietnamese (1.73 million), Korean (1.7 million), and Japanese (1.3 million). Other sizable ethnic groups include Pakistani (409,000), Cambodian (276,000), Hmong (260,000), Thai (237,000), Laotian (232,000), Bangladeshi (147,000), and Burmese (100,000). The total population of Asian Americans grew by 46 percent from 2000 to 2010 according to the Census Bureau, which constituted the largest increase of any major racial group during that period. In 2010, there were an estimated 11,284,000 foreign born individuals who were born in Asia, of whom 57.7% had become naturalized citizens. Additionally, 209,128 were Hispanic and Latino, of whom the largest population (101,654) claim Mexico as their nation of origin.

The 2000 census recorded 11.9 million people (4.2 percent of the total population) who reported themselves as having either full or partial Asian heritage. The largest ethnic subgroups were Chinese (2.7 million), Filipino (2.4 million), Indian (1.9 million), Vietnamese (1.2 million), Korean (1.2 million), and Japanese (1.1 million). Other sizable groups included Cambodians (206,000), Pakistanis (204,000), Lao (198,000), Hmong (186,000), and Thais (150,000). About one-half of the Asian American population lived in the West, with California having the most total Asian Americans of any state, at 4.2 million. As a proportion of the total population, Hawaii is the only state with an Asian American majority population, at 58 percent; Honolulu County had the highest percentage of Asian Americans of any county in the nation, with 62 percent. In 2000, 69 percent of all Asian Americans were foreign born, except Japanese Americans, 60 percent of whom were born in the United States.

The Twenty-first United States Census, conducted in 1990, recorded 6.9 million people who were called American Asians. The largest ethnic groups were Chinese (23.8 percent), Filipino (20.4 percent), Japanese (12.3 percent), Indian (11.8 percent), Korean (11.6 percent), Vietnamese (8.9 percent), and Laotian (2.2 percent). Smaller populations, of less than two percent, were documented of the following ethnicities: Cambodian, Thai, Hmong, Pakistani, Indonesian, Malay, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Burmese. Two thirds of "American-Asians" lived in the five states of California, New York, Hawaii, Texas, and Illinois. Additionally their highest population concentrations were in California, New York, and Hawaii. In 1990, 66 percent of American Asians were foreign-born, with Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians having this highest foreign born populations.

Distribution

Trends

Asian Americans, on average, have higher incomes and education levels than White Americans. However, they also have higher poverty rates and lower home ownership rates. In addition, homeownership among Asian Americans has increased by twice as much as white Americans in recent years (see Homeownership in the United States).

Education

Asian Americans have the highest educational attainment of any racial group in the country; about 49.8% of them have at least a bachelor's degree. Since the 1990s, Asian American students often have the highest math averages in standardized tests such as the SAT and GRE. Their combined scores are usually higher than those of white Americans. The proportion of Asian Americans at many selective educational institutions exceeds the national population rate. Asians constitute around 10–20 percent of those attending Ivy League and other elite universities. Asian Americans are the largest racial group on seven of the nine University of California campuses, are the largest racial group of undergraduates in the system, and make up more than a quarter of graduate and professional students. Asian Americans are more likely to attend college, are more likely to apply to competitive colleges, and have significantly higher college completion level than other races. According to a poll targeting Asian Americans in 14 states and the District of Columbia conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in 2013, 40 percent of Asian Americans have a college degree, with almost a quarter of them having achieved an education attainment greater than a bachelor's degree. That same year, Asian Americans in their late thirties had the highest percentage (65%) of college graduates for that age group than any other race or ethnicity in the United States. These high education attainment statistics contribute to a stereotype of academic and vocational excellence for Asian Americans.

However, there are concerns that the goal of diversity in American higher education has had a negative effect on Asians, with charges of quotas and discrimination starting in the 1980s. Asian American test scores are also bimodal—Asians are over represented both at high scores and low scores. A stereotype has been created that Asian Americans only study STEM and health-related fields at their universities (to become engineers, doctors, etc.). But according to a report by the College Board, Asian Americans do have academic interest in fields like social science, humanities, and education. According to an opinion piece written in The Harvard Crimson, Asian Americans are "over-represented" in higher education in the United States, specifically at elite colleges. This includes Harvard University & Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where over a fifth of undergraduates are Asian American. Similar increases in Asian American enrollment was found in the University of California system, especially in the late 20th century. However, only a small number of institutions are presented, usually selective enrollment institutions, thus making it appear that Asian Americans make up a large part of a university's student population. Moreover, this discrimination brought upon Asian Americans in education has encouraged the model minority stereotype in American society. The high expectations placed on Asian American students often cause the problems faced by these students to be overlooked. Issues related to social pressure and mental health are often overlooked due to the idea of the model minority. Education is one of the main aspects that are given a high regard in the social expectations of Asian Americans.

Income

In 2010, the median household income of Asian Americans had increased to $67,022. As with educational achievement, economic prosperity is not uniform among all Asian American groups. In 2005 Census figures show that an average white male with a college diploma earns around $66,000 a year, while similarly educated Asian men earn around $52,000 a year.

However, by 2008, according to the College Board and United States Census Bureau, Asian American males with similar education achievement as their White American male counterparts earned more than their White American male counterparts (median AM = $71K, median WM = $66K). Asian American females also earned more than their White American female counterparts (median AF = $67K, median WF = $51K).

As of 2015, that trend continued.

Population growth

Asian American population growth is fueled largely by immigration. Natural population growth accounts for a small proportion of the 43 percent increase in total Asian American population between 2000 and 2010.

Language

According to the 2000 Census, the more prominent languages of the Asian American community include the Chinese languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taishanese, and Hokkien), Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Gujarati. In 2008, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese languages were all used in elections in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington state.

In 2010, there were 2.8 million people (5 and older) who spoke a Chinese language at home; after the English and Spanish languages, it is the third most common language in the United States. Other sizeable Asian languages are Tagalog, Vietnamese, Hindi/Urdu, and Korean, with all four having more than 1 million speakers in the United States.

In 2012, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Washington were publishing election material in Asian languages in accordance with the Voting Rights Act. These include Tagalog, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindi and Bengali. Election materials were also available in Gujarati, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, and Thai. According to a 2013 poll conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, 48 percent of Asian Americans considered media in their native language as their primary news source.

Language Population
2016
Speak English
"very well"
Speak English
less than "very well"
Chinese 3,372,930 1,518,619 1,854,311
Tagalog 1,701,960 1,159,211 542,749
Vietnamese 1,509,994 634,273 875,720
Hindustani 1,285,358 985,291 304,227
Korean 1,088,788 505,734 583,054
Japanese 464,535 265,552 197,983
Gujarati 407,520 265,219 139,612
Telugu 365,566 264,368 143,152
Bengali 324,008 182,447 141,561
Tai-Kadai 307,442 152,210 155,212
Punjabi 287,491 168,743 118,748
Tamil 273,332 221,997 51,355
Hmong 224,133 133,163 90,970
Khmer 203,115 102,364 100,751
Other Austronesian languages 467,718 291,405 176,313
Other Indic languages 409,631 244,847 164,784
Other Dravidian languages 241,678 184,233 57,445
Other languages of Asia 384,154 175,146 209,008

Religion

Asian American religious preferences are wide-ranging and tend to be more diverse than those other races in the United States. The growth of Asian American immigration since 1965 has contributed to this diversity. Until recently, a dearth of scholarship regarding Asian American religious beliefs led to a stereotype that Asian Americans are not religious or spiritual. Although 59 percent of Asian Americans believe strongly in the existence of one or more gods, 30 percent identify as "secular" or "somewhat secular." Only 39 percent of Asian American households belong to a local church or temple, due to atheism or adherence to Eastern religions without congregational traditions.

No religious affiliation claims a majority of Asian Americans. The Trinity College American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) in 2008 found that of Asian Americans, 27% identified as none or agnostic, 21% identified with an Eastern religion, 17% identified as Catholic, 10% identified as generically Christian, 6% identified as mainline Protestant, 3% identified as Baptist, 2% identified as Penecostal or other Protestant, and 8% identified as Muslim. A separate 2008 survey of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 17% of Asians identify as Catholic, 17% as evangelical Protestant, 14% as Hindu, 11% as secular, 3% as atheist, 4% as agnostic, and 5% as other unaffiliated. In 2012, a Pew Research Center survey of the Faiths of Asian Americans found that a plurality of Asian American respondents (42%) were Christian, followed by those who were unaffiliated (26%), Buddhist (14%), Hindu (10%), and Muslim (4%). The 2008 Pew survey found that about a third of American Buddhists are Asian.

Both the 2008 ARIS survey and the 2008 Pew survey found that of all major U.S. demographics, Asian Americans had the highest number of respondents who did not claim a religion or refused to divulge their religious affiliation. A Gallup poll conducted in 2010 found that Asian Americans were the group least likely to say that religion was important in their daily lives, although a 54 percent majority of respondents still said that religion was important in their daily lives.

Filipino Americans are majority Catholic, and a significant minority of Vietnamese Americans are as well. Most Muslim Asian Americans come from, or trace their ancestry to, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan.

Sexuality

According to a Gallup survey conducted from June to September 2012, 4.3 percent of Asian Americans self identify as LGBT. This compares with 4.6 percent of African-Americans, 4 percent of Hispanic-Americans, 3.2 percent of Caucasian-Americans, and the overall 3.4 percent of American adults that self identify as LGBT in the total population.

In a Gallup survey conducted in 2017, 4.9 percent of Asian Americans identified as LGBT, representing the second-highest growth of LGBT representation among African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Caucasian Americans.

U.S. states and territories

State/Territory Asian American
Population
(2010)
Percentage
Asian American
(2010)
Asian American
Population
(2020)
Percentage
Asian American
(2020)
 Alabama 67,036 1.4 102,777 2.0
 Alaska 50,402 7.1 61,460 8.4
 American Samoa 1,994 3.6 - -
 Arizona 230,907 3.6 351,132 4.9
 Arkansas 44,943 1.5 68,568 2.6
 California 5,556,592 14.9 7,045,163 17.8
 Colorado 185,589 3.7 285,784 4.9
 Connecticut 157,088 4.4 205,693 5.7
 Delaware 33,701 3.8 50,969 5.1
 District of Columbia 26,857 4.5 45,465 6.6
 Florida 573,083 3.0 843,005 3.9
Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia 365,497 3.8 565,644 5.3
 Guam 51,381 32.2 - -
 Hawaii 780,968 57.4 824,143 56.6
 Idaho 29,698 1.9 47,513 2.6
 Illinois 668,694 5.2 875,488 6.8
 Indiana 126,750 2.0 212,649 3.1
 Iowa 64,512 2.1 96,861 3.0
 Kansas 83,930 2.9 112,195 3.8
 Kentucky 62,029 1.4 98,763 2.2
 Louisiana 84,335 1.9 111,836 2.4
 Maine 18,333 1.4 25,473 1.9
 Maryland 370,044 6.4 502,173 8.1
 Massachusetts 394,211 6.0 582,484 8.3
 Michigan 289,607 2.9 411,928 4.1
 Minnesota 247,132 4.7 357,704 6.3
 Mississippi 32,560 1.1 44,931 1.5
 Missouri 123,571 2.1 179,336 2.9
 Montana 10,482 1.1 16,889 1.6
 Nebraska 40,561 2.2 69,006 3.5
 Nevada 242,916 9.0 353,593 11.4
 New Hampshire 34,522 2.6 46,861 3.4
 New Jersey 795,163 9.0 1,046,732 11.3
 New Mexico 40,456 2.0 55,997 2.6
 New York 1,579,494 8.2 2,173,719 10.8
 North Carolina 252,585 2.6 425,449 4.1
 North Dakota 9,193 1.4 18,675 2.4
 Northern Mariana Islands 26,908 49.9 - -
 Ohio 238,292 2.1 377,303 3.2
 Oklahoma 84,170 2.2 123,614 3.1
 Oregon 186,281 4.9 275,296 6.5
 Pennsylvania 402,587 3.2 603,726 4.6
 Puerto Rico 10,464 0.3 8,904 0.3
 Rhode Island 36,763 3.5 48,450 4.4
 South Carolina 75,674 1.6 123,666 2.4
 South Dakota 10,216 1.3 18,489 2.1
 Tennessee 113,398 1.8 178,683 2.6
 Texas 1,110,666 4.4 1,849,226 6.3
 Utah 77,748 2.8 125,088 3.8
 Vermont 10,463 1.7 16,182 2.5
United States Virgin Islands Virgin Islands (U.S.) 1,457 1.4 - -
 Virginia 522,199 6.5 757,282 8.8
 Washington 604,251 9.0 939,846 12.2
 West Virginia 16,465 0.9 22,281 1.2
 Wisconsin 151,513 2.7 216,345 3.7
 Wyoming 6,729 1.2 9,473 1.6
 United States of America 17,320,856 5.6 24,000,998 7.2

The above list displays the population of Asian Americans ("Alone, or in combination") in US states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, according to the 2010 United States Census

Origins of the Asian population (2010 Census)

State/Territory Chinese Filipino Indian Japanese Korean Vietnamese Other Asian
 Alabama 11,154 8,224 14,951 4,336 10,624 8,488 9,259
 Alaska 3,726 25,424 1,911 3,926 6,542 1,446 7,427
 American Samoa 440 1,217 3 11 217 34 72
 Arizona 42,331 53,067 40,510 19,611 21,125 27,872 26,391
 Arkansas 6,301 6,396 7,973 2,384 3,247 6,302 12,340
 California 1,451,537 1,474,707 590,445 428,014 505,225 647,589 459,075
 Colorado 33,344 26,242 24,135 22,714 28,177 23,933 27,044
 Connecticut 36,483 16,402 50,806 6,203 11,760 10,804 24,630
 Delaware 7,033 4,637 12,344 1,196 3,099 1,688 3,704
 District of Columbia 6,583 3,670 6,417 2,010 2,990 1,856 3,331
 Florida 94,244 122,691 151,438 25,747 35,629 65,772 77,562
Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia 54,298 28,528 105,444 14,247 60,836 49,264 52,880
 Guam 2,617 41,944 2,368 3,437 337 678
 Hawaii 199,751 342,095 4,737 312,292 48,699 13,266 139,872
 Idaho 5,473 6,211 2,786 5,698 2,806 2,154 4,570
 Illinois 119,308 139,090 203,669 28,623 70,263 29,101 78,640
 Indiana 26,038 16,988 30,947 8,437 13,685 8,175 22,480
 Iowa 11,494 6,026 12,525 2,854 7,375 9,543 14,695
 Kansas 13,448 9,399 15,644 4,178 7,756 16,074 17,431
 Kentucky 10,512 8,402 14,253 6,197 7,264 5,813 9,588
 Louisiana 11,953 10,243 13,147 3,117 4,752 30,202 10,921
 Maine 4,390 2,918 2,397 1,181 1,741 2,170 3,536
 Maryland 79,660 56,909 88,709 12,826 55,051 26,605 50,284
 Massachusetts 136,866 18,673 85,441 15,358 28,904 47,636 61,343
 Michigan 51,525 32,324 84,750 17,412 30,292 19,456 53,848
 Minnesota 30,047 15,660 38,097 7,995 20,995 27,086 107,252
 Mississippi 5,333 5,638 6,458 807 2,301 7,721 4,302
 Missouri 26,001 17,706 26,263 7,084 12,689 16,530 17,298
 Montana 1,919 2,829 930 1,854 1,369 481 1,100
 Nebraska 5,730 4,900 6,708 3,106 3,815 8,677 7,625
 Nevada 39,448 123,891 14,290 21,364 18,518 12,366 13,039
 New Hampshire 7,652 3,369 9,075 1,842 3,021 2,907 6,686
 New Jersey 149,356 126,793 311,310 19,710 100,334 23,535 64,125
 New Mexico 7,668 8,535 5,727 4,889 3,760 5,403 4,474
 New York 615,932 126,129 368,767 51,781 153,609 34,510 228,763
 North Carolina 40,820 29,314 63,852 12,878 25,420 30,665 49,636
 North Dakota 1,762 1,704 1,740 628 933 791 1,635
 Northern Mariana Islands 3,659 19,017 795 2,253 1,184
 Ohio 50,870 27,661 71,211 16,995 21,207 15,639 34,706
 Oklahoma 11,658 10,850 14,078 5,580 9,072 18,098 14,834
 Oregon 41,374 29,101 20,200 24,535 20,395 29,485 21,191
 Pennsylvania 96,606 33,021 113,389 12,699 47,429 44,605 54,838
 Puerto Rico 2,751 445 5,475 313 205 232 1,043
 Rhode Island 8,228 4,117 5,645 1,455 2,658 1,615 13,045
 South Carolina 11,706 15,228 17,961 4,745 7,162 7,840 11,032
 South Dakota 1,570 1,864 1,433 696 1,179 1,002 2,472
 Tennessee 18,313 14,409 26,619 6,955 13,245 11,351 22,506
 Texas 182,477 137,713 269,327 37,715 85,332 227,968 170,134
 Utah 16,358 10,657 7,598 12,782 7,888 9,338 13,127
 Vermont 2,833 1,035 1,723 842 1,271 1,206 1,553
United States Virgin Islands Virgin Islands (U.S.) 1,457
 Virginia 72,585 90,493 114,471 20,138 82,006 59,984 82,522
 Washington 120,814 137,083 68,978 67,597 80,049 75,843 53,887
 West Virginia 3,208 3,059 3,969 1,159 1,571 1,104 2,395
 Wisconsin 21,054 13,158 25,998 5,967 10,949 6,191 68,196
 Wyoming 1,340 1,657 739 982 803 283 925
 United States of America 4,010,114 3,416,840 3,183,063 1,304,286 1,706,822 1,737,433 1,962,298

Chinese Americans figures include Taiwanese Americans; Data for the territories (except Puerto Rico) is from American FactFinder's 2010 United States Census data

See also


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