Asians/Pacific Islanders: Demographics
 

Education Issues Community Issues Demographics -Population growth -Ethnic groups

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How much do you know about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders? Take our quizzes and find out.

Famous Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Quiz

From Tiger Woods to Vera Wang, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have contributed to the culture of American society. Take our quiz and test your knowledge.

Where do Asian Americans come from?
The ten largest Asian ethnicities are listed below. Can you recognize their countries of origin?

There are approximately 13.8 million Asians and 764,000 Pacific Islanders in the United States.

• The ten states with the largest API populations in 2000 were:

  • California
  • New York
  • Hawaii
  • Texas
  • New Jersey
  • Illinois
  • Washington
  • Florida
  • Virginia
  • Massachusetts

• The ten largest Asian ethnicities are, in order:

  • Chinese  
  • Asian Indian
  • Filipino
  • Vietnamese
  • Korean
  • Japanese
  • Laotian 
  • Pakistani
  • Cambodian
  • Hmong

  • Thai

• The six largest Pacific Islander ethnicities are, in order:

  • Native Hawaiian
  • Samoan 
  • Guamanian
  • Tongan
  • Fijian
  • Marshallese

• According to the 2000 census, the poverty rate for Asians was 12 percent, similar to the national average of 12.6 percent—but among individual ethnicities, poverty rates varied from 6.3 percent to 37.8 percent. The poverty rate for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders was 17.7 percent.

Check out "The American Community -- Asians: 2004." It's part of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey and offers the most recent portrait of this group in the United States. (Issued February 2007)

Visit the U.S. Census Bureau's American Factfinder for the most up-to-date information.

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