Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress and AAPI Data released the first of a series of reports on the state of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders communities, featuring the most comprehensive research and analysis of its kind for the fastest-growing demographic in the United States. The reports, a joint project of CAP and AAPI Data, a project at the University of California, Riverside, examines how the growth of this group will affect a variety of key policy areas from immigration and education to health care and the environment.
People of color will be in the majority in the United States by mid-century, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, or AAPI, are a significant factor in the nation’s changing demographics. But the lack of centralized and accessible data has created a large knowledge gap about this fast-growing and influential group. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are quickly reaching the critical mass needed to be politically relevant, but data about this group have often not been available or presented in a way that is accessible to policymakers, journalists, and community-based organizations. The report series—by University of California Riverside political science Professor Karthick Ramakrishnan and CAP Policy Analyst Farah Z. Ahmad—will provide an unprecedented look at this community and provide new insight and analysis, including:
- The fastest-growing states for Asian Americans are Nevada, Arizona, North Dakota, North Carolina, and Georgia, where the populations more than doubled between 2000 and 2012.
- For Pacific Islanders, the states with the fastest growth are Arkansas, Alaska, Nevada, and Utah.
- 55 percent of Asian Americans prefer an activist government that provides more services than a smaller government that provides fewer services.
- Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are much more likely to support than oppose tax increases on high earners as a way to reduce the federal deficit.
- Asian Americans are among the most open to diversity when compared to other racial groups.
- 69 percent of Asian Americans consider themselves environmentalists, about 30 percentage points higher than the national average.
- 58 percent of Asian Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
- K-12 AAPI enrollment from 1979 to 2009 grew fourfold and is expected to grow another 31 percent by 2019—just short of the growth rate of Latinos at 36 percent.
Read the report series here.
For more information or to speak with one of our experts, contact Crystal Patterson at [email protected] or 202.478.6350.
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