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 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

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.

According to the 2022 American Community Survey, Bangladeshi Americans are among the fastest-growing Asian American groups in the United States.

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

The Asian American population is greatly urbanized, with nearly three-quarters of them living in metropolitan areas with population greater than 2.5 million. The three metropolitan areas with the highest Asian American populations are the Greater Los Angeles Area (1.868 million in 2007), the New York metropolitan area (1.782 million in 2007), and the San Francisco Bay Area (1,577,790 in 2007). New York City proper, according to the United States 2010 Census, is home to more than one million Asian Americans, greater than the combined totals of San Francisco and Los Angeles. This trend of a largely urban population continues to be observed in 2015, with significant populations in more expensive coastal cities, and less than five percent living in rural areas. Among the ten largest US cities, San Diego has the greatest proportion of Asian Americans. As of 2017, West (45%) and California (31%) had the most significant concentrations of the total Asian American populations; this keeps with historic trends of Asian Americans primarily residing in the Western United States, although there is a shift towards other regions of the United States beginning in the late 20th century.

According to the 2010 Census almost three quarters of all Asian Americans live in California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Hawaii, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. A large proportion of all Asian Americans live in California (5.6 million in 2010), New York (1.6 million in 2010), and Texas (1.1 million in 2010). Another state with a significant Asian American population is Massachusetts. Hawaii had the largest proportion of Asian Americans, with 57% of the state population identifying as Asian or multiracial with at least one part Asian. In Vermont in 2008, Asian Americans were the largest minority. Also, two U.S. territories (Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands) have large Asian populations — in 2010, Guam's population was 32.2% Asian, and the population of the Northern Mariana Islands was 49.9% Asian.https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_DPGU_GUDP1&prodType=table https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_DPMP_MPDP1&prodType=table American FactFinder. Guam / Northern Mariana Islands Demographic Profile Data (2010). Retrieved July 26, 2020 (archived).

Asian American populations have grown significantly since the 1970s. However, they are underrepresented in several large urban areas, such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas and Atlanta, although in some cases, Asian Americans are concentrated in specific urban neighborhoods or suburbs of these cities.

In regions with large numbers of Asian Americans, communities have developed that are heavily or predominantly Asian. Schools in these areas may offer instruction in languages such as Mandarin. These communities are often given unofficial names to reflect their populations, such as Chinatown, Little Manila, Little India, Japantown, Little Pakistan, Koreatown, Little Saigon, and Little Cambodia.

+Metropolitan areas with the highest population of Asian Americans (greater than 250,000 people)(2010 Census)Metropolitan area Total% of total populationLos Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA Metro Area1,884,66914.7%New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA Metro Area1,878,2619.9%San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Metro Area1,005,82323.2%San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Metro Area571,96731.1%Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI Metro Area532,8015.6%Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metro Area517,4589.3%Honolulu, HI Metro Area477,50343.9%Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area392,96111.4%Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX Metro Area389,0076.5%Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area341,5035.4%San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA Metro Area336,09110.9%Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area295,7665.0%Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH Metro Area294,5036.5%Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metro Area259,0716.1%Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA Metro Area255,99511.9%Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA Metro Area254,3074.8% +Metropolitan Areas with the Highest Proportion of Asian Americans (2010 Census)Metropolitan AreaTotal population% of Asian AmericansHonolulu, HI MSA953,20743.9San Francisco Bay Area8,153,69623.3Greater Los Angeles Area17,877,00614.7Sacramento/Yolo, CA CMSA2,414,78311.9%Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area4,274,76711.4%San Diego, CA MSA3,095,31310.9%New York metropolitan area23,076,6649.9%Baltimore-Washington (AA demographics)7,608,0709.3%Greater Houston5,920,4166.5

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