Simplified Chinese | Traditional Chinese | Traditional Chinese / Taiwanese | Tagalog | हिन्दी/Hindi | 한국어/Korean | Japanese/Japanese | Tiếng Việt/Vietnamese
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 24 million Asian Americans will live in the United States as of 2022. They accounted for 7% of the country’s population in the same year and are the fastest growing major racial or ethnic group in the country.
Asian Americans trace their roots to more than 20 countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. However, the majority (77%) originate from just six countries: China, India, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam.
Immigrants make up a narrower share of Asian Americans (54%), while the U.S.-born share is slightly smaller (46%). Geographically, California is home to more than 7 million Asian Americans, far more than any other state. New York and Texas are each home to about 2 million Asians.
In 2022, the median income for Asian American households was $100,000. This means that half of Asian-headed households earn more than that, and half earn less. The economic status of Asian groups in the United States varies widely. In fact, Asian Americans are one of the most economically divided racial or ethnic groups today.
In 2022 and 2023, Pew Research Center surveyed more than 7,000 Asian adults living in the United States about their own identity, views of the United States and their ancestral homeland, and political and religious affiliations. asked. Here we take a closer look at some of the key findings.
identity
Asian Americans express their identity in many different ways. When asked how they most often describe themselves, some people identify with their ethnic origin (such as “Chinese” or “Filipino”), while others identify with their regional identity (such as “South Asian”). Some people use “person”, etc.). Others use the pan-ethnic label. Some people identify as “Asian” and others as “American.” Additionally, some people associate their racial or ethnic identity with the word American, such as “Asian American” or “Vietnamese American.”
About a quarter (26%) of Asian adults in the United States say they most often use only their ethnicity to describe themselves. A similar proportion (25%) use the word “American” in conjunction with their ethnicity. Additionally, 16% most often refer to themselves as “Asian American,” 12% describe themselves as “Asian,” and 10% describe themselves as “American.” Relatively few (6%) use descriptions of Asian regions such as “South Asia.”
Knowledge of Asian American History
About a quarter (24%) of Asian American adults say they are very or very knowledgeable about Asian history in the United States; half say they are somewhat knowledgeable; state that they have little or no knowledge.
The majority of those who know at least a little about Asian American history have learned about the history of Asian Americans in the United States informally through the Internet (82%), the media (75%), or family and friends (63%). I answered that I have learned something. Fewer people say they learned about it through college or university (37%) or K-12 school (33%).
View of the United States and ancestral homeland
Roughly 8 in 10 (78%) Asian Americans have a very or somewhat favorable impression of the United States, which is higher than their favorable impression of other places asked in the survey. is higher than the percentage with Japan has the second-highest positive share (68%). However, only 20% of Asian American adults have a favorable opinion of China.
Of the six major Asian groups in the United States, most have positive opinions of their ancestral homeland, but Chinese Americans are a notable exception. Only 41% of Chinese adults in the United States have a favorable view of China.
Although most people in the largest Asian origin group view their ancestral homelands favorably, most say they would not move there. Overall, about 7 in 10 (72%) Asian Americans say they would not do so. U.S.-born Asian Americans are more likely than immigrants to say they will not move to their ancestral homeland (84% vs. 68%).
Realizing the American Dream
Most Asian Americans say they are on their way to achieving the American Dream (45%) or have already achieved it (26%). Still, about a quarter (27%) say the American Dream is out of reach for them, and that percentage is even higher among Asian Americans living in poverty (47%). are.
politics
Asian Americans lean toward the Democratic Party. About six in ten (62%) registered Asian voters in the United States identify as Democrats or lean Democratic, while about one-third (34%) identify with the Republican Party. Are you leaning toward the Republican Party?
Most of the six major Asian groups in the United States lean toward the Democratic Party. Vietnamese Americans are an exception. 51% of Vietnam’s registered voters are Republicans or lean toward the Republican Party, and 42% are Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party.
In 2022, approximately 14 million Asian Americans were eligible to vote, representing 5% of the total U.S. eligible population. Pew Research Center predicts that the number of Asian American voters will increase to nearly 15 million this November, making them the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in U.S. electoral districts starting in 2020. (voters include people 18 years and older). A citizen of the United States by birth or naturalization. )
religion
As with Americans overall, the percentage of Asian Americans who identify as unaffiliated with any religion is increasing, but the percentage who identify as Christian is decreasing.
About one-third (32%) of Asian adults in the United States are religiously unaffiliated, up from 26% in 2012. Meanwhile, 34% of Asian adults are Christian, down from 42% in 2012.
Despite this decline, Christians remain the largest faith group among Asian Americans. A smaller percentage of Asian Americans are Buddhist (11%), Hindu (11%), Muslim (6%), or of other faiths (4%).
Among Asian Americans, religious affiliation varies widely by group of origin. For example, more than half (47%) of Japanese Americans are religiously unaffiliated, while about three-quarters (74%) of Filipino Americans are Christian.
All photos except far left by Getty Images, via AP Images
This analysis is one in a seven-part series exploring the identities, views, attitudes, and experiences of Asian Americans, including the six largest Asian-origin groups in the United States. For these analyses, Asian Americans also include those who identify solely or exclusively as Asian. Combinations with other races and Hispanic ethnicity.
The six Asian Americans profiled in this series (Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese American), either alone or in combination with non-Asian races or ethnicities, include: Includes people who only identify as Asian American. In this series, Chinese adults do not include those who identify as Taiwanese. Other Pew Research Center analyzes examining attitudes and characteristics of Asian groups may use different definitions and therefore may not be directly comparable.
This analysis is based on two data sources. The first is the Pew Research Center’s 2022-23 Survey of Asian American Adults, which surveyed 7,006 respondents from July 2022 to January 2023 in six languages. It was carried out in The center assembled a large sample to examine the diversity of the U.S. Asian population, with oversamples of Chinese, Filipinos, Indians, Koreans, and Vietnamese. These are the five largest origin groups among Asian Americans. The survey also included a large enough sample of self-identified Japanese adults to enable us to report specific findings regarding them. See methodology for more details.
The second data source is the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey (ACS), provided through the University of Minnesota’s Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS).
The Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of its principal funder, the Pew Charitable Trusts. The Center’s Asian American Portfolio was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the Asian American Foundation. Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, Silicon Valley Community Foundation Advised Fund. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Henry Luce Foundation. Doris Duke Foundation. Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. Dirk and Charlene Cavsenel Foundation. Long Family Foundation. The Lou Hebert Foundation; The Gee Family Foundation; The Joseph Cotchett; The Julian Abdi and Sabrina Moyle Charitable Foundation. And Nancy Nishimura.
We would also like to thank the Leaders Forum for their thoughtful leadership and valuable support in making this study possible.
The strategic communications campaign used to promote the research was made possible through generous support from the Doris Duke Foundation.
