Asians Dethrone Latinos as the Fastest Growing Race in the United States

The latest estimates of the U.S. Census Bureau point to Asians as the fastest-growing racial group in the country. As of July 1, 2015, there were 21 million Asians recorded, marking a 3.4% increase from previous year’s tally.

The Bureau attributes this growth to net migration, which is basically the difference between people moving in and out of the country. Until the current record, Latinos had been the fastest-growing minority for decades, Fusion reports.

Among states, the largest concentration of the Asian population was found in California, which had 6.5 million in July 2015. Los Angeles County had 1.7 million, the most in any county. Hawaii is the only state where Asians were the majority, taking 56%. Majority counties include Honolulu County and Kauai County.

Meanwhile, America’s Hispanic population came in at 56.6 million, marking a 2.2% increase since July 1, 2014. The approximate growth of 1.2 million people is attributed to a natural increase in birth rates. The number of Caucasians, or any combination of, was over 255 million – a 0.5% increase from the previous year.

The current statistics support a study published by the Pew Research Center in September 2015. By 2065, the nonpartisan fact tank projects that Asians will make up 38% of immigrants, outnumbering Hispanics which will fall at 31%. In the same year, the United States is expected to have a population of 441 million, with 78 million born elsewhere.


Pew’s report came 50 years after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, CNN recalls. As told by the outlet, 51% of immigrants have come from Latin America since the act’s passage. If immigration did not take place since 1965, the United States would have been 75% white, 14% black, 8% Hispanic and less than 1% Asian.

As cited by the Migration Policy Institute, most Asian immigrants, on average, are able to acquire legal permanent residence. They also tend to be more educated, and employed in management occupations with higher incomes.

Yet the Migration Policy Institute also found that undocumented immigration from Asia grew much faster than from Mexico and Central America, The Atlantic wrote in an earlier article. This increase was a stunning 202% from 2000 to 2013.

One recent case is that of tech entrepreneur Cris Mercado, who was born in the Philippines and brought to the United States at age six. Coming from a tourist visa, he is among those in limbo after the Supreme Court’s split decision on President Obama’s immigration plan last week, CNN Money reports.


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