Census: Asian American population growing fastest among U.S. ethnic groups

BLASTING NEWS

Asian/Americans are the majority in Hawaii.

Asian Americans continue to be the country’s fastest growing racial group, now numbering 21.4 million nationwide, according to population estimates released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

The data also shows that Hawaii is the only state where AAPI are in the majority. California has the distinction of being the country's most diverse state.

In the six years following the 2010 Census, the country’s Asian/American population grew 21%; in contrast, the nation’s total population grew less than 5% over the same period. The country added 3.7 million Asian/Americans between 2010 and 2016 and 629,813 between 2015 and 2016 alone.

Immigration is the primary reason for the rapid increase. The majority of new immigrants to the U.S. come from Asian countries, led by China, India and the Philippines.

Sam Garrow, a Census Department demographer, said Asians have been the fastest-growing race group since about 2000, and the main driving force is international migration. In 2013, China replaced Mexico as the top sending country for immigrants to the United States, officials said.

Approximately 65% of the Asian/American population growth nationwide between 2010 and 2016 was attributable to immigration; in contrast, 23% of Latino population growth over the same period was due to immigration. According to the U.S. State Department, over 87% of immigrant visas issued in 2016 to those from Asia were issued to the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or under family-based preferences.

According to the new data, Asian/American populations are growing both in traditional hubs like California, Texas, and New York and in states with emerging communities, like North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa. 

RELATED: Asian Americans surpass Latinos as fastest growing group

Between 2010 and 2016, California (+904,589), Texas (+401,081), New York (+298,308), Washington (+163,864), and Florida (+147,819) saw the greatest numeric increases in Asian American population. Over the same period, Asian American populations grew fastest in North Dakota (+63.10%), South Dakota (+58.02%), Iowa (+42.82%), Nebraska (+39.83%), and Indiana (+39.00%).

“We already knew our communities were growing outside California, New York, and Hawai’i”, said Daniel Ichinose, Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles’ Demographic Research Project and head of its Census Information Center (CIC). “While the 2000s brought Asian/American population growth to places like Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina, the 2010s are bringing new growth to the heartland of America.”

California has the largest number of most racial and ethnic groups, with more Hispanics, whites, Asians and American Indians than any other state. New York state has more blacks than any other state, and Hawaii has the largest numeric population of Native Hawaiians than any other state.

Other highlights of the report, "Detailed Population Estimates by Age, Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin," can are: be found here.

• The Asian population grew by 3.0 percent to 21.4 million.
• The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population grew by 2.1 percent to 1.5 million.
• California had the largest Asian population of any state (6.6 million), and the largest numeric increase (152,400). Hawaii had the highest percentage for this group (57.0 percent).
• Among counties, Los Angeles County, Calif., had the largest Asian population of any county (1.7 million), as well as the largest numeric increase (22,400). Honolulu County, Hawaii, had the highest percentage in the nation for this group (61.3 percent).
• Hawaii had the largest Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population of any state in 2016 (381,000). Since 2015, this group increased the most in California (4,900). Hawaii had the highest percentage of its population in this group in 2016 (26.7 percent).
• Among counties, Honolulu County, Hawaii, had the largest Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population (245,600) in 2016, and Clark County, Nev., had the largest increase during the last year (1,500).
• Among states, more people who identified as being of two or more races lived in California (1.5 million) than in any other state, with an increase of 32,900 from 2015. Hawaii had the highest percentage for this group (23.7 percent).
• Among counties, Los Angeles County, Calif., had the largest population of two or more races in 2016 (305,000). Maricopa County, Ariz., had the highest numeric increase since 2015 (5,300). Hawaii County, Hawaii, had the highest share for this group (30.1 percent).

The number of AAPIs will surpass African Americans by mid-century

PSST! Don't tell anyone, but the number of Asian/Americans will surpass African Americans by the middle of this century.

A recent report from Pew Research Center, 10 Demographic Trends Shaping the U.S., glossed over this hugely significant shift but in one of their graphs accompanying the report, it showed that by 2065, the AAPI community will make up 14 percent of the U.S. population and the African/American population at 13 percent.

This might not have been worthy enough to mention in the Pew report, but it is BIG NEWS in the AAPI community, which has been struggling to get out from under this cloak of invisibility in order to get the attention of demographers, marketers, politicians and anybody else interested in the growing diversity of America.


At the root of the growth, says the Pew report, is immigration where immigrants from Asian countries has risen to the point of overtaking the immigration coming from Latin American countries, including Mexico.

So while this year's presidential contenders focus their attention on whether or not to build a wall on our southern border - thankfully - no one is talking about building a wall along the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii. Never mind that that feat is eve less feasible than the wall on the our border with Mexico, with the quality of some candidates' rhetoric this political season, I'm surprised that someone like GOP frontrunner Donald Trump hasn't proposed it.

That's why I wouldn't trumpet the growth of the Asian population too loudly (no pun intended), otherwise AAPIs might be more front and center in the Presidential race conversation.

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The same report shows that the U.S. will become more racially and ethnically diverse as the century marches on. The Latino American population will surge to make up 24 percent while the so-called white (Euro American) population will drop to 46 percent. The African/American population will remain constant, around 13 to 14 percent up to 2065.

No race or ethnic group will make up the majority of the country by 2055. Much of this change has been (and will be) driven by immigration. Nearly 59 million immigrants have arrived in the U.S. in the past 50 years, mostly from Latin America and Asia, says the report. 

Today, a near-record 14 percent of the country’s population is foreign born compared with just 5 percent in 1965. Over the next five decades, the majority of U.S. population growth is projected to be linked to new Asian and Hispanic immigration. 

American attitudes about immigration and diversity are supportive of these changes for the most part. More Americans say immigrants strengthen the country than say they burden it, and most say the U.S.’s increasing ethnic diversity makes it a better place to live.

In a reversal of one of the largest mass migrations in modern history, net migration flows from Mexico to the U.S. turned negative between 2009 and 2014, as more Mexicans went home than arrived in the U.S., notes the Pew report. And after rising steadily since 1990, the unauthorized immigrant population has leveled off in recent years, falling to 11.3 million in 2014 from a high of 12.2 million in 2007. 

Meanwhile, Asians are now the only major racial or ethnic group whose numbers are rising mainly because of immigration. 

The implications of the racial shift are enormous although they will not have much impact in this year's political free-for-all even though the 2016 electorate will be the most diverse in U.S. history due to strong growth among Latino/American eligible voters, particularly U.S.-born youth. 

There are also wide gaps opening up between the generations on many social and political issues, most evident in the Democratic contest featuring the generally youthful supporters of Bernie Sanders and the older generations leaning towards Hillary Clinton. Young adults tend to hold liberal views on many political and social issues, though they are also less likely to identify with either political party: 50 percent call themselves political independents, who may be the deciding factor in November during the general elections.

READ the full report here.

In order to take full political advantage of the increased numbers, Asian/Americans will have to do a much better job in registering to vote. As the graphs show in 2015, although Euro/Americans made up only 60 percent of the U.S. population, they made up 69 percent of voters and AAPI voters made up only 4 percent of the registered voters even though they made up 6 to 7 percent of the population in 2015.

The demographic trend could create a domino effect of changes in other fields: more AAPI politicians; an increase of marketing of products directed at the AAPI consumers; schools might teach more Asian languages and Asian/American history; more of a presence in motion pictures and TV; and maybe even, the standard of beauty will change.

RELATED: The American story - immigration, innovation, opportunity

Hopefully, by 2065, a couple of generations will have passed and today's immigrants'  children and their children's children will increase the poll of registered voters.

One of the unfortunate possibilities of becoming more visible is that AAPIs will become more of a target of hate mongers. As a community, Asian/Americans will have to gird themselves for this likely outcome and prepare themselves to take a more prominent role in this century when the face of America will no longer be the blond, blue-eyed Euro/American.

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