Facts about Asian-Pacific Americans continued

Regions in the U.S. with significant populations are Alaska, Hawaii, West Coast, Northeast, and Chicago. Chinese is the most widely spoken non-English language in the country. Tagalog, Vietnamese and Korean are each spoken at home by more than 1 million people.

In the 2000-2010 U.S. Census the term Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa or other Pacific Islands…They are of Polynesian, Micronesian and Melanesian cultural backgrounds.” The 2000-2010 U.S. Census also includes Filipino Americans, Indonesian Americans, Taiwanese Americans and Japanese Americans as Asian Americans even though they have ethnic origins from islands bordering the Pacific Ocean.

Pacific Islander Americans represent 0.3% of the United States population. They are most concentrated in Hawaii, Alaska and to a lesser extent the West Coast, specifically California. Languages, besides American English, are Carolinian, Chamorro, Fijian, Hawaiian, Marshallese, Samoan, Polynesian languages, and others.

For more information about Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, go to the U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Features & Special Editions.

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