Facts about Asian Pacific Americans

An Asian American is generally defined as a person of Asian ancestry and American citizenship, although may also be extended to include non-citizen resident Asians as well. Today, Asian American is the accepted term for most formal purposes, such as government and academic research, although the term is often shortened to Asian in common usage.

The demographics of Asian Americans describe a heterogeneous group of people in the United States who can trace their ancestry to one or more countries in Asia. Asian Americans total 4.3% of the entire U.S. population, however, some of the ethnic groups have the highest income and education of any American groups. Regions with significant populations are Alaska, Hawaii, West Coast, Northeast, and Chicago.

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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