Asian Americans and Census 2000
An AACP Special Report

In comparing the 1990 and 2000 US Census the Asian population (those defining themselves as being of a single Asian ethnicity - see note below) increased from 2.8% to 3.6% of the total US population (6,908,638 in 1990 and 10,242,998 in 2000). If you include the people of mixed ethnicity that are part Asian or belong to more than one Asian ethnicity, the percentage change increases from 2.8% to 4.2% (all Asians including mixed Asians numbered 11,898,828 in 2000). Thus, from 1990 to 2000, the Asian population increased by 72% while the general population only increased by 13%.

The Asian group that has increased the most since 1990 are the Asian Indians. In 1990 there were 815,447 Asian Indians and in 2000 there were 1,678,765, an increase of almost 106%.

(Note - the 1990 census did not have a method for counting people of mixed ethnicity. The 2000 Census included such a method - therefore comparisons between 1990 and 2000 census figures are not exact.)

Where do Asians Live
49% of all Asians in America live in the Western United States. This is why the ratio for Asians across the whole country is approximately 1 in 25, while in California the ratio is 3 in 25. The four states with the largest number of Asians are California, New York, Hawaii, and Texas.

Ethnic Composition of Asians The ethnic breakdown for the top six Asian American groups are Chinese 2,432,585 Filipino 1,850,314 Asian Indian 1,678,765 Vietnamese 1,122,528 Korean 1,076,872 Japanese 796,700 Note that these numbers do not include people with mixed ethnicity that are part Asian or may belong to more than one Asian group. For more information • Census 2000 Gateway • Asian and Pacific Islander Populations Statistics • Minorities and Women in 107th US Congress

Under Representation in Congress The number of Asian representatives in the US Senate and House for the 107th Congress as reported in the Congressional Quarterly Jan. 20, 2001: 4 members or .9% of the 435 members in the House and 2 members or 2% of 100 members in the Senate. Editorial Note Although the number of representatives does not accurately reflect the percentage of Asians in America, this does not mean that our representatives cannot do an adequate job of representing their Asian constituency. An Asian American representative may be just as ignorant of Asian American issues as non-Asian Americans. We must work to educate all of our representatives about the diverse cultural differences and issues of the people that they represent.

Up Coming Events

Date/Time	Event	Location
Sept. 7 9am-4pm	Midori Kai Arts & Craft Show	MV Buddhist Temple Mountain View, CA
Other Event of Interest that AACP May Not Attend
Sept. 14 - 15 11am-6pm	San Francisco Autumn Moon Festival	SF Chinatown, San Francisco, CA
Sept. 21 - 22 10am-6pm	The Moon Festival of Silicon Valley	Memorial Park Cupertino, CA

New Author Links

Editor's Message

Past editions of the newsletter can now be found on our website at http://asianamericanbooks.com/newslet.htm. In the future, we hope to also post any of your feedback emails on this page. There is also a subscription form on this page for people that are not yet members of our email newsletter. If you know of someone that may appreciate receiving our newsletter, such as your friends and family, sign them up :-).

It has come to my attention that some of you may be getting the newsletter through an email forwarding system. If you do not wish to receive our newsletter, please use your email program to view the details of the header of this email to figure out the routing path of the email and then contact the forwarding service. My apologies to you and please bear with us until we can find out how to remove you from the list.

Leonard Chan
Editor

Give Us Your Feedback

The perception that Asians "automatically" take care of their own elderly is unfortunately often untrue. Housing issues and the mobility of jobs often make it impractical for younger generations to be in close proximity to their elders. Smaller family sizes also reduce the safety net that the elderly traditionally have depended upon, a situation universal to all the elderly.

In comparison with the general population it has been shown that many Asian American elders have language and cultural differences that make them less likely to receive the same social services, medical care, and social interaction that the rest of the elderly population receives. Census data also shows that Asian American elderly are also more likely to be below the poverty line than the general population, another risk factor for neglect and other problems.

Besides the general shortages of social workers and facilities that affect all elderly care services, there are also not enough social and medical workers familiar with Asian American cultures and languages. To make matters worse, elders living in suburban areas such as Santa Clara (the Silicon Valley) and Los Angeles counties have to contend with vast distances and poor public transportation to reach care facilities. Likewise social workers contend with the same difficulties to make home visits to the elderly who can't leave home.

What can we do? One constant problem is that Asian Americans are underrepresented in government therefore all of our issues are usually neglected. However, barring the mass election of Asian American politicians there are things that we can do to make our government better understand and address the issues of elderly Asian Americans. We can write letters and speak out to political representatives demanding that Asian American voices be heard in government and that more funding and attention be given to the elderly at all levels of government.

When was the last time Asians Americans got any attention in the media? Help raise our profile to reflect our population and issues in TV, print, the Internet, and radio.

Lastly, we should volunteer more of our time to work with the elderly and contribute to elderly services, either materially or financially.

Why should we care? Where will you be in 40, 30, and 20 years or even sooner? If not yourself then what about your parents and grandparents? The time to think about elderly services is before we need them.