To accompany the article on Celebrating May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Census Bureau has compiled a brief statistical summary of the Asian American population using various Census data sources. This is an edited list of 14 Important Statistics about the Asian American Population, updated for 2008.
Population
14.9 million
The estimated number of U.S. residents in July 2006 who said they were Asian or Asian in combination with one or more other races. This group comprised 5 percent of the total population.
52%
The percentage of the foreign-born from Asia who are naturalized U.S. citizens.
2.5 million
The number of people age 5 and older who speak Chinese at home. After Spanish, Chinese is the most widely spoken non-English language in the country. Tagalog and Vietnamese also have more than 1 million speakers.
213%
The projected percentage increase between 2000 and 2050 in the population of people who identify themselves as Asian. This compares with a 49 percent increase in the population as a whole over the same period of time.
33.4 million
The projected number of U.S. residents in 2050 who will identify themselves as Asians. They would comprise 8 percent of the total population by that year.
Education
49%
The percentage of Asians, age 25 and older, who have a bachelor's degree or higher level of education. Asians have the highest proportion of college graduates of any race or ethnic group in the country and this compares with 27 percent for all Americans 25 and older.
86%
The percentage of Asians, age 25 and older, who are high school graduates.
20%
The percentage of Asians, age 25 and older, who have an advanced degree (e.g., Master's, Ph.D., M.D. or J.D.). This compares with 10 percent for all Americans 25 and older. However, different Asian ethnic groups have different educational attainment levels -- 68 percent of Asian Indians, age 25 and older, had a bachelor's degree or more education and 37 percent had a graduate or professional degree; the corresponding numbers for Vietnamese-Americans were 24 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
Income and Poverty
$64,238
Median household income for Asians in 2005, the highest among all race groups. However, median household income differed greatly by Asian group. For Asian Indians, for example, the median income in 2006 was $78,315; for Vietnamese-Americans, it was $52,299.
10.3%
Poverty rate for Asians in 2006, down from 11.1 percent in 2005.
Work and Employment
1.1 million
Number of businesses owned by Asian-Americans in 2002, up 24 percent from 1997.
$343.3 billion
Receipts of Asian-American-owned businesses in 2002, up 13 percent from 1997. Asian American-owned businesses employed a total of 2.2 million people, and their receipts totaled $307.6 billion, or about $961,379 per company. Also, only 28% of all Asian-American owned businesses were home-based, the lowest proportion for any racial/ethnic minority group.
292,100
The number of Asian-American military veterans.
47%
The proportion of employed Asians 16 and older who work in
management, professional and related occupations, such as financial managers, engineers, teachers and registered nurses.
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. <http://www.asian-nation.org/14-statistics.shtml> ().
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