Census releases new stats on the AA and NHPI communities

How does the Filipino American population differ from the total Asian population in the United States? Which Asian group is the oldest or the largest? Is the Native Hawaiian population larger than all other Pacific Islander groups?

The answers to these questions and a trove of other detailed data on hundreds of race, Hispanic origin, ancestry and tribal groups are in the New American Community Survey (ACS) population tables released Thursday.

The answer to the first question: The Filipino population and Japanese population had the largest percentage point difference (around 3%) between the alone and alone or in any combination groups; Filipinos have the second oldest median age (42.8) among other AANHPI groups; and the The Filipino population and Japanese population are more likely to be mixed race.

The US Census release ACS characteristics for race and ethnic groups every year but the new 2017-2021 ACS Selected Population Tables (SPT) and American Indian and Alaska Native Tables (AIANT) is an even broader release that covers a 5-year period and offers social, economic, housing and demographic characteristics of more population groups at numerous geographic levels.

There are 399 population groups in the 2017-2021 SPT that had a national population estimate of at least 7,000 and 1,059 population groups in the 2017-2021 AIANT that had a national population estimate of at least 100. This is the third time the Census Bureau has released these detailed 5-year ACS estimates.

The data includes two categories of race: race alone and mixed race. 

As a result, the race alone or in any combination population represents the maximum number of people who identified as that detailed Asian or NHPI group.

These concepts are important to frame the discussion of racial and ethnic composition and help us understand the changing demographics of our country as it becomes much more multiracial.

The Census release highlights 10 largest Asian and six largest NHPI population groups to illustrate the type of data available in these products. These groups were selected based on the race alone population size.

Some factoids from Thursday's release:

• Among the Asian population, Asian Indian (22.8%) was the largest race alone group and Chinese, except Taiwanese the largest alone or in any combination group (23.0%).

• Among the Asian population, Asian Indian (22.8%) was the largest race alone group and

• Chinese, except Taiwanese, were the largest alone or in any combination group (23.0%).

• The Hmong population had the youngest median age for both the alone (26.1) and alone or in any combination (25.2) populations.

• Over three-quarters of the Asian Indian and over half of the Korean, Pakistani, Chinese except Taiwanese, and Japanese populations had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

FYI: For more details about the AA and NHPI communities.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.