To accompany the article on Celebrating May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Pew Research Center and the U.S. Census Bureau have compiled fact sheets and statistical profiles of the Asian American population.
24.0 million
The estimated number of U.S. residents in 2021 who said they were Asian or Asian in combination with one or more other races. This represents almost a doubling of the population from 2000. Asian Americans now comprised almost 7 percent of the total U.S. population.
54%
The percentage of the Asian American population who are immigrants / foreign-born. As expected however, there are large differences across Asian ethnic groups -- only 27% of Japanese Americans and 34% of Hmong Americans are immigrants, while 83% of Nepalese Americans and 85% of both Malaysian Americans and Bhutanese Americans are immigrants.
58%
The percentage of the Asian American population who are either of Chinese, Indian, or Filipino ethnicity. These top three Asian ethnic groups comprise 23%, 20%, and 18% of the Asian American population respectively. The next three largest Asian ethnic groups are Vietnamese (9% of the Asian American population), Korean (8%), and Japanese (6%). All other Asian ethnic groups comprise the remaining 15% of the Asian American population.
83%
The percentage of the Asian American population who are single-race and non-Hispanic. Mixed-race / multiracial Asian Americans comprise 14% of the Asian American population and Hispanic Asians comprise 3%. If mixed-race/multiracial Asian Americans were their own ethnic group, they would be the fourth-largest within the Asian American population.
45%
The proportion of all Asian Americans who live in the West, with nearly a third (30%) in California alone. California had an Asian American population of about 6.7 million in 2019, by far the nation's largest. It was followed by New York (1.9 million), Texas (1.6 million), New Jersey (958,000) and Washington (852,000). A majority of U.S. Asian Americans (55%) lived in these five states.
36%
By 2055, Asian Americans are expected to make up 36% of all immigrants in the U.S. and are expected to surpass the 34% of all immigrants who are Hispanic/Latinx, which will make Asian American the largest immigrant group by 2055.
14%
The percentage of the undocumented immigrant population (estimated to be 10.5 million total) who are of Asian descent. These are the largest groups within this Asian undocumented immigrant population: Indian (525,000), Chinese (375,000), Filipino (160,000), and Korean (150,000).
55.1%
The percentage of Asian Americans, age 25 and older, who have a bachelor's degree or higher level of education. Asian Americans have the highest proportion of college graduates of any race or ethnic group in the country and this compares with 33% for all Americans 25 and older.
$97,626
Median annual household income for Asian Americans in 2021, the highest among all racial groups. However, median household income differed greatly by Asian group. For Asian Indians, for example, the median income in 2019 was $119,00 (2019); for Burmese Americans, it was $44,000 (2019).
10.2%
Poverty rate for Asian Americans in 2021, compared to 13% for all Americans.
25
The median age of the Hmong American population, which makes them the youngest Asian ethnic group in the U.S. Among all Asian Americans, the median age is 34. The group that has the oldest median age is Thai Americans at 41.
27%
The percentage of Asian Americans who live in a multigenerational household (that include two or more adult generations, or both grandparents and grandchildren). This compares to 20% of all Americans who live in multigenerational households. Of course, there are large differences among particular Asian ethnic groups -- 56% of Bhutanese Americans live in multigenerational households while only 16% of Malaysian Americans and 13% of Mongolian Americans do.
81%
The percentage of surveyed Asian Americans who say that violence against them is increasing, far surpassing the share of all U.S. adults (56%) who say the same. In addition, 45% of surveyed Asian Americans say that they have experienced an incident tied to their racial or ethnic background since the pandemic began.
76%
The percentage of surveyed Asian Americans who say they have personally experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity. Of note, this finding was from 2019, before the start of the pandemic.
You can see additional statistics on the Asian Pacific American population at the Census Bureau's Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month page and population profile.
Author Citation
Copyright © 2001- by C.N. Le. Some rights reserved. 
Suggested reference: Le, C.N. . "14 Important Statistics About Asian Americans" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. <14-statistics.shtml> ().
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