Pew study: Asian Americans surpass Latinos as the fastest growing racial group

THE ASIAN AMERICAN population is now the fastest growing segment of the U.S., overtaking the growth rate of U.S. Latinos.

The Pew Research Center study, which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data, found that the U.S. Hispanic population grew annually on average by only 2.8 percent between 2007 and 2014. In the years between 2000 and 20007, the rate was 4.4 percent. The Pew study released today (Sept. 8), came to the same conclusion that the U.S. Census Bureau came to earlier this year.

In that same time span, the Asian American population has been growing at a steady 3.4 percent. In an earlier study, the growth rate of Asian/Americans was driven by increased  immigration from Asian countries, especially from South Asia and China.

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The lower growth rate among Latinos was explained by two demographic trends. The Immigration rate from Latin America has slowed to a relative trickle compared to the highpoint of Latino immigration in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, in the case of Mexico, immigration has now reversed back toward Mexico since 2009.

As a result, the main driver of Latino population growth shifted to U.S. births. But here too, change is underway: Throughout much of the early 2000s birth rates of Hispanic women ages 15 to 44 were about 95 births per 1,000 women, reaching a peak of 98.3 in 2006. However, since the onset of the Great Recession, their birth rates have declined, steadily falling to 72.1 births per 1,000 Latino/American women ages 15 to 44 in 2014.

Since 2000, more immigrants were coming from Asia than from Latin America making the Asian/American population poised to increase its percentage of the U.S. population.

According to the U.S. Census, the Asian/American proportion of the total U.S. population is hovering around 6 percent. The largest ethnic groups represented in the census were Chinese (3.79 million), Filipino (3.41 million), Indian (3.18 million), Vietnamese (1.73 million), Korean (1.7 million), and Japanese (1.3 million).

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