New Census Data Gives a More Detailed Portrait of Asian Americans in New York City

June 27... The United States Census Bureau released more detailed Census 2000 data for New York State today. The release contains data collected in the Census short form, which includes age, gender, familial relationships, and housing tenure, as cross-tabulated by race group. Additionally, the release includes the population counts for sixteen detailed Asian subgroups. There were 787,047 Asian American New Yorkers who marked "Asian" alone in Census 2000. In addition to the ten Asian groups that were detailed in 1990, the Bureau added Bangladeshi, Indonesian, Malaysian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Taiwanese in 2000.

Analysis by the Asian American Federation Census Information Center (Federation CIC), summarized in Table 1 above, shows that Chinese Americans remained the largest Asian group in New York City, growing over 53% from 1990 to 357,243 in 2000. Asian Indian Americans rank second, growing over 80% to a total of 170,899 in 2000, and Korean Americans are the third largest group growing 24% to a total of 86,473 in 2000. However, the fastest growing Asian group in New York City is Bangladeshi Americans, with a population growth of over 285% between 1990 and 2000, to a total of 19,148.

Within Queens, the most ethnically and racially diverse of New York City's counties, Chinese, Indian, and Korean Americans remained the 3 largest Asian groups, however, the Bangladeshi American community grew from 2,567 in 1990 to 12,786 in 2000 - a growth rate of nearly 400%. In Brooklyn, Chinese Americans remained the largest Asian group at nearly 65% of the population, and experienced a growth of 52,572 between 1990 and 2000, for a total of 120,439 in 2000. Indian and Pakistani Americans are the second and third largest groups at 25,404 and 9,903 respectively.

These figures represent the "Asian Alone" category, and do not include respondents who marked off more than one Asian subgroup or more than one race. Federation CIC analysis revealed that 12,884 Asian Americans in New York City marked more than one Asian group, while 85,730 Asian American New Yorkers self-identified as "Asian" in combination with at least one other race group.

"The Asian American community is more visible in New York than it has ever been," stated Parag Khandhar, Policy Associate at the Asian American Federation. "However, meeting the social and human service needs of newer populations will be a significant challenge for the new Mayor and City Council leadership." He continued, "The Asian American Federation will continue to analyze and disseminate new data as it is released to promote dialogue on policy decisions that impact Asian American communities."

The release also contained age, housing, and family size data for the 6 recognized race groups. For respondents who marked Asian alone, the fastest growing group was the age cohort of 60-69, which grew by nearly 200% citywide. The median age for Asian American New Yorkers was 33.6 years in 2000, as compared to 34.2 for the total population. Forty percent of Asian New Yorkers are home-owners, while the city average is 30.2%. Asian homeowner rates in Queens and Brooklyn are higher than the county averages, however the rate of Asian homeownership in Manhattan (14%) is below the county average (20.1%). The average family size for Asian Americans was 3.64, compared to the 3.32 average family size for the total population. The Census Bureau will release cross-tabulated data for age, gender, family structure, and housing tenure for the 16 detailed Asian American groups in the next round of data releases, scheduled for Fall 2001.

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The Asian American Federation of New York is a not-for-profit leadership organization with 36 member agencies that serve the city's diverse Asian American communities. In August of last year, the Asian American Federation established the Asian American Federation Census Information Center (Federation CIC) to conduct data and policy analysis. Borough population totals and percentage growth for each of the sixteen detailed Asian groups in New York City are available on the Asian American Federation website at www.aafny.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Parag Khandhar
(212) 344-5878 x18
parag@aafny.org

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