7 February 2002

One in Four of America's Foreign-Born Individuals from Asia

By Steve La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The number of foreign-born residents and naturalized citizens from Asia increased 2.2 million between 1990 and 2000, according to a February 7 report from the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce.

In 2000, according to the Census Bureau, 7.2 million of the nation's foreign-born population identified an Asian country as their place of birth. This number is an increase from the 5.0 million Asian-born individuals reported in the 1990 census, and continues the trend of rapid growth in that population since 1970 when Asian-born residents and naturalized citizens numbered 800,000.

"Asian-born residents comprised 26 percent of the country's foreign-born population in 2000," the Census Bureau said. While the percentage is similar to that of the 1990 census, the percentage of foreign-born from Asia has climbed from 9 percent in 1970, to 19 percent in 1980, to today's 26 percent.

The five nations that contribute the most to America's foreign-born population from Asia are China, India, Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam, according to the report.

In the 2000 census, there were 1,391,000 foreign-born individuals from China; 1,222,000 from the Philippines; 1,007,000 from India; 863,000 from Vietnam, and 701,000 from Korea.

The Census Bureau report notes that 45 percent of America's Asian-born population has settled in the Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco metropolitan areas.

The San Francisco area holds the distinction of being the only area where the Asian-born population makes up more than half of the total foreign-born population.

America's Asian-born population has one of the highest citizenship rates among foreign-born groups, according to the Census Bureau.

Numbers from the March 2000 Current Population Survey show Asian-born individuals doing well in the United States. The median household income for foreign-born householders from Asia was $51,400 in 1999, the highest income of any foreign-born group, and higher than the median income of $41,400 for native households. According to the Census Bureau, the high median income for Asian households may result from a high proportion of workers in managerial and professional jobs.

The Census Bureau estimated that 39 percent of Asian-born workers were employed in a managerial or professional job, higher than the proportion for either native-born workers (31 percent) or foreign-born workers as a whole (25 percent).

Turning to poverty, Asian-born residents and naturalized citizens had a poverty rate of 13 percent in 1999, similar to the 11 percent poverty rate for native-born Americans. The rate for all foreign-born individuals was 17 percent, the Census Bureau said.

In education, 87 percent of the native-born population 25 years and older had graduated from high school or higher education. The Asian-born population came in at 84 percent, while the percentage for all foreign-born who had completed high school or higher education was 67 percent.

Asian-born householders had a home-ownership rate of 52 percent -- below the 70 percent for native-born householders, but above the 49 percent for all foreign-born householders.

The average household size for the Asian-born population was 3.18 people -- slightly below the number for all foreign-born households of 3.26, but larger than the 2.54 people that made up the average native-born household.