Posted on October 27, 2011

Asian Americans Now Country’s Fastest Growing Racial Group

Los Angeles Times, October 26, 2011

Increased immigration from South Asia helped fuel the rapid growth in the number of Asian Americans over the last decade as well as an influx of Asians to states such as Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data released Wednesday.

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Looking at Asian Americans as a single group masks the distinct social and economic needs of the various ethnicities involved, said Dan Ichinose, director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center’s Demographic Research Project. {snip}

And while 26% of Hmong Americans and 20% of Bangladeshi Americans live below the poverty line, only 6% of Filipinos and 8% of Indians do.

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According to the report, which used 2010 Census, American Community Survey and other government data, immigration, both legal and illegal, has fueled most of the population growth. Approximately 60% of Asian Americans are foreign-born and about 1 million are undocumented, according to the report.

Among the undocumented, those from the Philippines, India, South Korea and China make up the largest numbers.

Though California’s population of more than 5.5 million Asian Americans remained the country’s largest, several other states showed significant growth over the last decade. The population of Asian Americans in Nevada more than doubled, while in Arizona it almost doubled.

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