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Drumbeat: Ad Buzzaar
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Wednesday, May 20, 1998
Living in America
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
The 1990 census counted 6,908,638 Asian-Americans, a 99 per cent increase over the 1980 census count of 3,466,847. In 1990, the largest number of Asian-Americans were Chinese (24 per cent), followed by Filipino (20 per cent) and Japanese, with 12 per cent of the Asian population. Asian-Indians, at 11.8 per cent, form the fourth largest group among Asian-Americans. Newer immigrant groups - Laotian, Cambodian, Thai and Hmong - each accounted for 2 per cent or less of Asian-Americans. Fifty-four per cent of the Asian-American population lived in the West in 1990 compared to 21 per cent of the total US population. Approximately 66 per cent of Asian-Americans lived in just five states - California, New York, Hawaii, Texas and Illinois. Sixty-six per cent of Asian-Americans were born in foreign countries. Among Asian groups, Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians had the highest proportion of foreign born, while Japanese had the lowest proportion. 38 per cent of Asian-Americans entered the US from 1980-1990. Asian-Americans had a median age of 30 years in 1990, younger than the US national median of 33 years. Only 6 per cent of Asian-Americans were 65 years old and older, compared to 13 per cent of the total US population. The average Asian-American family had 3.8 persons in 1990, larger than the US average of 3.2 persons per family. Asian-American families were larger partly because the percentage of children under 18 years old who lived with both parents was higher than the general population (81 per cent versus 70 per cent). In 1990, 78 per cent of all Asian-Americans 25 years old and over were at least high school graduates; the US national rate was 75 per cent. At the college level, 38 per cent of Asian-Americans had graduated with a bachelor's degree or higher by 1990, compared to20 per cent of the total US population. Asian-Indians had the highest attainment rates, with 65.7 per cent of males and 48.7 per cent of females with a bachelor's degree or higher. Of the 4.1 million Asian-Americans 5 years old and over, 56 per cent did not speak English very well, and 35 per cent were linguistically isolated. The Hmong, Laotians and Cambodians had the highest proportions of persons five years old and over speaking an Asian or Pacific Islander language at home, Asian-Indians, at 15 per cent, had the lowest proportion. In 1990, 67 per cent of Asian-Americans compared to 65 per cent of all Americans, were in the labour force. Filipino (75.4 per cent), Asian-Indian (72.3 per cent), Thai (71.4 per cent), and Chinese (65.9 per cent) had participation rates higher than the national average. Asian-American women had a higher participation rate than all US women. 60 per cent of Asian-American women were in the labour force compared to 57 per cent of all women in the US. The proportion of Asian-American families with three or more workers was 20 per cent compared to the US national proportion of 13 per cent.l In 1989, the Asian-American per capita income was $13,806 compared to the US per capita income of $14,143. Japanese-Americans had the highest per capita income at $19,373, followed by Asian-Indians at $17,777. Although some Asian-Indians came to the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, all but a few thousand of the more than 600,000 Asian-Indians who were in the US at the end of the eighties, are post-World War II immigrants and their children, and the vast majority of these are persons who have come since 1965. The awkward term ``Asian-Indian'' was adopted by the Census Bureau for the 1980 census at the urging of the immigrant community to avoid confusion with Native Americans on the one hand and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis on the other. Previously, the government - and the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups - used the term East Indian. 75.4 per cent of Asian-Indians are foreign born. 43.9 per cent of them entered the US between 1980 and 1990. Asian-Indians have a median age of 28.9, younger than the US national median of 33 and the Asian-American median of 30.1. Among Asian-Indians in the US 89.4 per cent of males and 79 per cent of females are high school graduates or higher. 65.7 per cent of males and 48.7 per cent of females have a bachelor's degree or higher. Five Indian languages figures in a list of 50 non-English languages spoken in the US: Hindi and Urdu, with 331,484 speakers, rank 14th; Gujarati, with 102,418 speakers, ranks 26th: Punjabi, with 50,005 speakers, ranks 39th; Bengali, with 38,101 speakers, ranks 44th; and Malayalam, with 33,949 speakers, ranks 48th. Asian-Indians rank third after Chinese and Koreans in US with ownership of 93,340 firms.Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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