Question: What percentage of the American population identifies as Asian?

Demographics of Asian Americans

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.[1][2][3]
Manilamen began to reside in Louisiana as the first Asian Americans to live in the continental in the United States.[4] Yet, most Asian Americans have arrived after 1965;[5] these individuals make up one-quarter of all immigrants who have arrived in the U.S. since 1965, and has resulted in a majority of Asians in the United States being born outside of the country.[6] The 2016 estimate of population of the United States, done by the United States Census Bureau, stated that there were nearly 21 million Asian Americans.[7] During the 2010 United States Census the largest ethnic groups were Chinese American, Filipino Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, and Japanese Americans.[8]
The overall population is highly urbanized;[9] they are also largely in the Western United States and California.[6] Generally, Asian Americans are well educated;[10] additionally Asian American households have higher average incomes;[11] however achievement is not uniform among their population.[12] No one religion have the majority of Asian Americans, however Christian Asian Americans make up a plurality of the population.[13] About 4% of Asian Americans identify as LGBT.[14]


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.[4] Since there were no women with them, the Manilamen, as they were known, married Cajun and Native American women.[15] In 1778, Chinese and European explorers first arrived in Hawaii.[16][17] Numerous Chinese and Japanese began immigrating to the US in the mid-19th century;[18] numerous Chinese immigrants worked as laborers on the First Transcontinental Railroad, many who immigrated due to overpopulation and poverty experienced in Canton Province.[19] In the mid-20th century, refugees from Southeast Asia fled wars in the homelands to come to the United States.[20] 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.[5]
Population

Historical populationYearPop.±%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%201319,437,463+12.2%201620,901,780+7.5%Sources[21][22][7]
2000 & 2010 figures include Multiracial Asian American Americans
1910, 1920, 1930, 1960, 1970, and 1980 include Pacific Islands American population numbers[23][24]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the Asian American population, including those of multiracial and Hispanic and Latino ancestry, had increased to 20,908,701 by 2016.[7]
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.[25] 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).[8][26] 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).[8] 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.[27] 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.[28] Additionally, 209,128 were Hispanic and Latino, of whom the largest population (101,654) claim Mexico as their nation of origin.[29]
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.[30] 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).[30] 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.[30] As a proportion of the total population, Hawaii is the only state with an Asian American majority population, at 58 percent;[30] Honolulu County had the highest percentage of Asian Americans of any county in the nation, with 62 percent.[30] In 2000, 69 percent of all Asian Americans were foreign born, although Japanese Americans, 60 percent of whom were born in the United States, bucked this trend.[31]
The Twenty-first United States Census, conducted in 1990, recorded 6.9 million people who were called American Asians.[32] 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).[32] Smaller populations, of less than two percent, were documented of the following ethnicities: Cambodian, Thai, Hmong, Pakistani, Indonesian, Malay, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Burmese.[32] 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.[32] In 1990, 66 percent of American Asians were foreign born, with Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians having this highest foreign born populations.[32]
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.[41] In addition, homeownership among Asian Americans has increased by twice as much as white Americans in recent years (see Homeownership in the United States). Since the majority of the Asian American population is urbanized it usually offers more access to an educational environment as well as academic supplies. With that being said, Asian Americans will tend to find better access to higher paying jobs because of their better access to resources. Also, rural settings require farm hands which will prevent children and teenagers from completing highschool and graduating with a diploma.
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.[10] Since the 1990s, Asian American students often have the highest math averages in standardized tests such as the SAT[42][43] and GRE.[44] Their verbal scores generally lag, but their combined scores are usually higher than those of white Americans.[42] The proportion of Asian Americans at many selective educational institutions far exceeds the national population rate. Asians constitute around 10–20 percent of those attending Ivy League[45][46] and other elite universities. Asian Americans are the largest racial group on seven of the nine University of California campuses,[47] are the largest racial group of undergraduates in the system,[48] and make up more than a quarter of graduate and professional students.[49] Asian Americans are more likely to attend college,[50] are more likely to apply to competitive colleges,[51] and have significantly higher college completion level than other races.[10] 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.[52] 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.[53] These high education attainment statistics contribute to a stereotype of academic and vocational excellence for Asian Americans.[54]
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.[55] Asian American test scores are also bimodal—Asians are over represented both at high scores and low scores.[56] A stereotype has been created that Asian Americans only study STEM and health related fields at their universities.[57] According to a report by the College Board, it has shows Asian Americans have academic interest in fields like social science, humanities, and education.[58] According to an opinion piece written in The Harvard Crimson, it claims that Asian Americans are over represented in higher education in the United States, specifically at elite colleges;[59] this includes Harvard University & Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where over a fifth of undergraduates are Asian American.[60] Similar increases in Asian American enrollment was found in the University of California system, especially in the late 20th century.[61] 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.[58] Moreover, this discrimination brought upon Asian Americans in education has encouraged the model minority stereotype in American society.[61][62] The high expectations placed on Asian American students often cause the problems faced by these students to be overlooked.[63] Issues related to social pressure and mental health are often overlooked due to the idea of the model minority.[64] Education is one of the main aspects that are given a high regard in the social expectations of Asian Americans.[65]
Income






While Asian Americans have higher household and personal income levels than any other racial demographic, the Asian poverty rate is higher than that of European Americans.[66] In 2005, the median per capita income for Asian Americans was estimated at $27,331, compared to $26,496 for Whites, $16,874 for African Americans, and $14,483 for those identifying as Hispanic or Latino; the median household income of Asian Americans was estimated at $61,094, compared to $48,554 for European Americans.[11] Additionally 28 percent of Asian American households had incomes exceeding $100,000, compared to 18 percent of the overall population.[67] In 2006, Asian American households were slightly larger than other households, with fewer households with no earners.[68]
In 2008, Asian American households had the highest median income in the US, at $65,637; however, 11.8 percent of Asians were in poverty in 2004, a higher than the 8.6 percent rate for non-Hispanic whites.[69] This is largely due to the fact that a high percentage of Asian Americans are immigrants, and independently of race, immigrants are more likely than the native-born to be poor. Once country of birth and other demographic factors are taken into account, Asian Americans are no more likely than non-Hispanic whites to live in poverty.[70] Much of this poverty is concentrated in ethnic enclaves, such as Chinatowns.[71] In 2010, the median household income of Asian Americans had increased to $67,022.[72] As with educational achievement, economic prosperity is not uniform among all Asian American groups.[12] 2005 Census figures also 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.[73] By 2008, according to authors of a report produced by College Board utilizing date collected by the United States Census Bureau in 2008, Asian American males with similar education achievement as their White American male counterparts earned more than their White American male counter parts.[74] As of 2015, that trend continued.[75]

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.[22][79][80]





Asian American alone


With multiracial identifiers


Language

In 2010, there were 2.8 million people (5 and older) who spoke a Chinese language at home;[81] after the English and Spanish languages, it is the third most common language in the United States.[81] Other sizeable Asian languages are Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean, with all three having more than 1 million speakers in the United States.[81][82][83]
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;[84] these languages include Tagalog, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindi and Bengali.[84] Election materials were also available in Gujarati, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, and Thai.[85] According to a poll conducted by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in 2013, it found that 48 percent of Asian Americans considered media in their native language as their primary news source.[86]
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, Urdu, and Gujarati.[87] In 2008, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese languages are all used in elections in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington state.[88]

Religion

Asian Americans' religious preferences are wide-ranging, and tends to be more diverse than among other races in the United States.[89] The growth of Asian American immigration since 1965 has contributed to this diversity.[90] Until recently, a dearth of scholarship regarding Asian American religious beliefs led to a stereotype that Asian Americans are not religious or spiritual.[91] Although 59 percent of Asian Americans believe strongly in the existence of one or more gods exist, 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.[92]
Although no one religious affiliation claims a majority of Asian Americans, about 45 percent of them adhere to some form of Christianity.[93][13] A Trinity College survey, conducted in 2008, found that 38 percent of Christian Asian Americans are Catholic;[94] Filipino Americans are majority Catholic, and a significant minority of Vietnamese Americans are as well.[90] The Trinity survey also found that of all demographic populations, Asian Americans had the highest number of respondents who did not claim a religion or refused to divulge their religious affiliation.[94] Various surveys have put this number between 23 and 27 percent of Asian Americans.[13][94] Additionally, the Trinity College survey found that 8% of Asian Americans are Muslim;[94] many of these Muslim Asian Americans come from, or trace their ancestry to, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan.[95][96]
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.[97] In 2012, a survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center of the Faiths of Asian Americans, it found that Christianity had the largest plurality (42%) of Asian American respondents, followed by those who were unaffiliated (26%).[98] The three next largest faiths, of those who responded, were Buddhist (14%), Hindu (10%), and Muslim (4%).[98]
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.[14]
U.S. states and territories

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;
Chinese Americans figures include Taiwanese Americans; Data for the territories (except Puerto Rico) is from American FactFinder's 2010 United States Census data[107][108][109][110]
See also
List of U.S. cities with Asian American majority populations



 Asian American Socioeconomic Statistics and Comparisons