2010 Census Shows Asians are Fastest Growing Race Group
On March 28, the U.S. Census Bureau released a 2010 Census brief, “The Asian Population: 2010,” that shows the Asian population grew faster than any other race group over the last decade. The population that identified as Asian, either alone or in combination with one or more other races, grew by 45.6 percent from 2000 to 2010, while those who identified as Asian alone grew by 43.3 percent. Both populations grew at a faster rate than the total U.S. population, which increased by 9.7 percent from 2000 to 2010. Out of the total U.S. population, 14.7 million people, or 4.8 percent, were Asian alone. In addition, 2.6 million people, or another 0.9 percent, reported Asian in combination with one or more other races. Together, these two groups totaled 17.3 million people. Thus, 5.6 percent of all people in the United States identified as Asian, either alone or in combination with one or more other races.
Asians Grew by 30 Percent or More in Nearly Every State
The top five states that experienced the most growth were Nevada (116 percent), Arizona (95 percent), North Carolina (85 percent), North Dakota (85 percent) and Georgia (83 percent). These same five states also experienced the most growth in the Asian alone population.
Asians Represent More Than 50 Percent of the Population in Hawaii
The states with the highest proportions of the Asian alone-or-in-combination population were in the West and the Northeast. The Asian alone-or-in-combination population represented 57 percent of the total population in Hawaii. California had the next highest proportion at 15 percent, followed by New Jersey (9 percent), Nevada (9 percent), Washington (9 percent) and New York (8 percent).
New York City had the Largest Asian Population Among Places
The 2010 Census showed that New York had the largest Asian alone-or-in-combination population with 1.1 million, followed by Los Angeles (484,000) and San Jose, Calif. (327,000). Three other places — San Francisco, San Diego and Urban Honolulu — had Asian alone-or-in-combination populations of more than 200,000 people.
Among Asians, the Largest Multiple-Race Combination was Asian and White
Of the 17.3 million people who reported Asian, 2.6 million, or 15 percent, reported multiple races. Of the multiple-race Asian population, the majority (1.6 million or 61 percent) identified themselves as both Asian and white. The next largest combinations were Asian and “some other race” (9 percent), Asian and black (7 percent), Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (6 percent), and Asian and white and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (5 percent).
Detailed Asian Groups
The 2010 Census also provided information on detailed Asian groups. For example, the Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese populations each had 1 million or more people. Chinese (4.0 million) was the largest detailed Asian group, with 3.3 million people reporting Chinese alone and an additional 700,000 people identifying as both Chinese and one or more additional detailed Asian groups and/or another race. Filipinos (3.4 million), followed by Asian Indians (3.2 million), had the next largest number of people who reported one or more detailed Asian groups and/or another race. Among the Asian alone population that only reported one detailed Asian group, the order of the second and third largest groups switched — the Asian Indian (2.8 million) group was the second largest, followed by Filipino (2.6 million). The Chinese alone population remained the largest.
Among the detailed Asian groups with populations of 1 million or more, the Japanese population had the highest proportion that reported multiple detailed Asian groups and/or another race (41 percent). The Filipino population had the next highest proportion, in which 25 percent of Filipinos reported multiple detailed Asian groups and/or another race.
Geographic Distribution of Detailed Asian Groups
The geographic distribution of the detailed Asian groups focuses on the population that reported one or more detailed Asian groups and/or another race. Among detailed Asian groups with a population of 1 million or more, Japanese (71 percent) and Filipinos (66 percent) had the largest proportions living in the West. Large proportions of Chinese (49 percent), Vietnamese (49 percent) and Koreans (44 percent) lived in the West as well. A much lower proportion of Asian Indians (25 percent) lived in the West.
Among all detailed Asian groups, the Asian Indian population was the largest in 23 states, of which 13 were in the South, six in the Midwest and four in the Northeast. For every state in the West, either the Filipino population or the Chinese population was the largest detailed Asian group. The Filipino population was the largest detailed Asian group in 11 states, the Chinese population was the largest in nine states and the District of Columbia, the Vietnamese population was the largest in five states, and the Hmong population was the largest in two states.
Among the 20 metropolitan statistical areas with the largest Asian alone-or-in-combination populations, Chinese was the largest detailed Asian group in six of the 20 metro areas (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Boston and Seattle). The Asian Indian population was also the largest detailed Asian group in six of the 20 metro areas (Chicago, Washington, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit). Filipinos were the largest in five of the 20 metro areas (San Diego, Riverside, Las Vegas, Sacramento and Phoenix), followed by Japanese, Hmong and Vietnamese in one metro area each (Honolulu, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Houston, respectively).
Why the Pretty White Girl YA Book Cover Trend Needs to End
When writer Ellen Oh’s daughter was made fun of in school for the shape of her eyes, the author thought about the lack of diversity in book covers for young adults — an audience she writes for. The blog, Hello Ello, featured this editorial piece by Ellen Oh. An excerpt from her editorial reads: “As a YA author, I’ve found the lack of diversity in publishing profoundly sad. I’ve been particularly disturbed by what I find in the YA sections. Bookshelves filled with cover after cover of pretty white girls … Putting pretty white girls on all your book covers is the book equivalent of what all our fashion magazines do. An idealization of beauty that is unrealistic and dangerous to our youth. And it isn’t the right thing to do. Seeing a minority grace the cover of a YA book is like spotting the Lochness monster, you wonder if you’ve truly seen it and if you’ll ever see it again. How sad is that? To say that only pretty white girls can sell YA books is not a business model that publishers should approve of. And it’s not true. We need look no further than the gender neutral and iconic covers for the Hunger Games and Twilight series to see the truth.”
She continued, “The feminists have been after the fashion industry for years and yet nothing’s really changed, even with all the research that shows a correlation between teenage self-esteem and these magazines. But let’s face it, there’s a big difference between fashion magazines and books. We see fashion magazines as light entertainment. But books are an important part of our school curriculum. We teach our children about the importance of reading. And we send them out to the library and bookstore to look for books to foster their love of reading. But then they get there and the majority of the book covers resemble the covers of our fashion magazines.”
She continued, “We need for publishing to break this trend. Stop idealizing white beauty. I would rather there were no models gracing YA book covers rather than see wall after wall of only white ones. It’s time for publishers and booksellers to act more responsibly. They have the ability to influence entire generations of young people. Tu Books is already paving the way with multi-cultural YA titles and covers. They have seen the need in the market and they are answering it. It is up to booksellers and readers to support them and make it clear that their endeavor is important and help it become a success. Then maybe more publishers will follow in their footsteps and help change the current landscape of YA book covers.
She concluded, “We need to teach our youth the beauty of diversity. Beauty does not come in only one color. It does not come in only one size and one shape. And maybe when our teens grow up exposed to diversity, then they will grow into adults who embrace it. And then maybe their children will never call another child ugly simply because they do not match the ideal of white beauty.”
