Asian American Subgroups

What Drive the Asian Amerian Population Growth

Asian immigrants accounted for more than two-third of the Asian American population segment growth from 2000 to 2005 according to Census 2006. Natural increase caused the rest (32.6%), compared to 55.9% of the growth in the Hispanic population.

Where Are Asian American Immigrants From?

There are three board regional groups of Asian:

• Northeastern Asians come from Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. They share some linguistic and religious similarities.


• Southeast Asians are from the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, etc. These countries have a strong influence from the Spanish, Portuguese and/or French.


• South Asians are people come from countries including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They may be Hindu or Muslim but share a strong British influence.

Chinese account for nearly one out of four Asian Americans. Asian Indians and Filipinos are the next largest subgroups in the Asian population; followed by Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese. Almost 90% of all Asian Americans come from these six countries.

Not All of Them Are Immigrants

No doubt immigrants play the most important role in the Asian American population -- almost 70% of Asian Americans were foreign born. The impact varies by country of origin though. For instance, majority of Japanese Americans are native born; many of them are the third or fourth generation.

Multiple Subgroup Challenge

With the influence of more than fifteen different cultures, Asian Americans are the most diverse ethnic group in the US. The wide range of languages spoken -- Cantonese, Hawaiian, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalong, Vietnamese and hundreds of other dialects -- further complicate the situation.

While Census Bureau tracks population trends of the top six major subgroups (Asian Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese) and ten other Asian nationalities and ethnic groups, there are limited market researches on this demographic segment. This makes the Asian American market arguably the most challenging market. Marketers need to learn the markets by working closely with them, not from the books.

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