Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress—in collaboration with Karthick Ramakrishnan of AAPI Data—released new fact sheets that provide a detailed look at 10 different groups of Asian Americans by national origin in anticipation of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, which runs from May 1 through May 31. These fact sheets build on previous work about the importance of disaggregated data collection for improved policymaking and include data on key policy areas such as educational attainment, income and poverty, civic participation, language diversity, immigration and nativity, labor-force participation, and access to health insurance.
The Asian American population is one of the fastest-growing and most diverse demographic groups in the United States. While the “Asian” label is meaningful as a racial category that has been used in government classification for several decades, various national-origin groups have starkly different outcomes in many areas. Thus, while some Asian groups may fare well on socioeconomic outcomes when compared to the national average, other Asian groups fare much worse. Unfortunately, a lack of disaggregated data makes it difficult to assess the state of the Asian American community in the United States. Furthermore, this dearth of information makes it more difficult to properly allocate resources within this community.
The fact sheets include information on the following groups:
- Cambodian Americans
- Chinese Americans
- Filipino Americans
- Hmong Americans
- Indian Americans
- Japanese Americans
- Korean Americans
- Laotian Americans
- Pakistani Americans
- Vietnamese Americans
“Immigration is a fundamental part of the Asian American experience that is common across national-origin groups. Asian Americans are the only racial group that is majority foreign born, and immigration is fueling population growth among many communities, including Indian Americans, Chinese Americans, and Filipinos,” said Karthick Ramakrishnan. “This contributes to the considerable diversity in the Asian population, underscoring the need for detail and documentation of the critical differences on issues such as education, income, and language proficiency.”
Access all the fact sheets here.
Related resources:
To speak to an expert on this issue, please contact Tanya S. Arditi at [email protected] or 202.741.6258.
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