Asian American

Asian Americans are people having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent.¹ According to the 2000 U.S. Census, those who identify only as Asian-American comprise 3.6 percent of the American population, approximately 10 million individuals. The Census Bureau projects that the Asian-American population will grow to 37.6 million individuals by the year 2050, comprising 9.3 percent of the population. Asian-American populations are generally concentrated in the western states, the Northeast, and parts of the South. The states with the greatest concentration of Asian Americans are Hawaii, California, Washington, New Jersey, and New York.²

Asian Americans represent a wide variety of languages, dialects, and cultures as different from one another as from non-Asian groups. Asian Americans have historically been overlooked due to the “myth of the model minority”: the erroneous notion that Asian Americans are passive, compliant, and without problems or needs. The effects of this myth have been the failure to take seriously the very real concerns of this population.

Asian Americans represent both extremes of socioeconomic and health indices: while more than a million Asian Americans live at or below the federal poverty level, Asian-American women have the highest life expectancy of any other group. Asian Americans suffer disproportionately from certain types of cancer, tuberculosis, and Hepatitis B. Factors contributing to poor health outcomes for Asian Americans include language and cultural barriers, stigma associated with certain conditions, and lack of health insurance.³

Ten Leading Causes of death in the U.S. in 2001 for Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders:

	1.	Cancer
	2.	Heart disease
	3.	Stroke
	4.	Unintentional injuries
	5.	Diabetes
	6.	Chronic lower respiratory disease
	7.	Influenza and Pneumonia
	8.	Suicide
	9.	Nephritis, Nephrotic syndrome, and Nephrosis
	10.	Homicide
Source: Health, U.S., 2003, Table 31.

In addition, Asian Americans have disproportionately high prevalence of the following conditions and risk factors:

	¹ Census Bureau, Census 2000 Brief: Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin, 2000.
	² Census Bureau, Census 2000.
	³ The Health Care Challenge: Acknowledging Disparity, Confronting Discrimination, and Ensuring Equality. United States Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 1999.

	Census 2000 adheres to the federal standards for collecting and presenting data on race and Hispanic origin as established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in October 1997 and subsequent guidelines. One of the most important changes for Census 2000 was the revision of the questions on race and Hispanic origin to better reflect the country’s growing diversity. The federal government considers race and Hispanic origin to be two separate and distinct concepts. In addition, Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders are counted as two separate and distinct racial groups. Because of these changes, the Census 2000 data on race are not directly comparable with data from the 1990 census or earlier censuses. Caution must be used when interpreting changes in the racial composition of the U.S. population over time.
	Census Bureau Glossary of Terms: Race, 2000.
	Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Provisional Guidance on the Implementation of the 1997 Standards for Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, 2000.
	Office of Management and Budget Recommendations from the Interagency Committee for the Review of the Racial and Ethnic Standards to the Office of Management and Budget Concerning Changes to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, 1997.