APA Demographics
Demographic Highlights- APA Demographics
- APA Demographics by Ethnicity
- Asian and Pacific Islander Ethnicities
- Top Seven Washington State Counties with APA Populations
- APA Population by Ethnicity (historical 1990)
- Example of APA Languages and Dialects
- Washington State Census 2000 Demographic Snapshot (PDF 11Kb)
- Legislative Population by Race (PDF 34Kb)
- Population by City and Race in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties (PDF 34Kb)
Demographic Highlights
- Asian Pacific Americans (APA) make up the fastest growing racial group in the nation and in the State of Washington. This was true in the 1980s, the 1990s, and will continue into the 21st Century.
- Census 2000 figures show that there are 432,943 Asian Pacific Islanders in the Washington State population. This accounts for those who identified themselves as one race or in combination with one or more other races.
- It is expected that in twenty years, APAs will make up 10% of the total state population.
- Today Washington State ranks in the top ten states with the most APAs, claiming 7th place.
- APAs are made up over 50 distinct Asian and Pacific Islander communities, representing various languages, dialects, cultures, and immigration patterns.
- By 2020, Census projections estimate that there will be 20 million APAs in our nation. The elimination of racially based immigration quotas in 1965 and the subsequent waves of immigrants and refugees from Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands diversified and increased the number of APAs.
- Nearly 85 percent of the state’s total APAs live in the greater Puget Sound area.
APA Demographics, 2000 Census Bureau
- Asian: 322,335
- Pacific Islander: 23,953
- Asian+White: 45,963
- Asian+Black or African American: 3,789
- Asian+American Indian and Alaska Native: 2,204
- Asian+Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 5,559
- Asian+Some one other race: 6,360
- Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander; American Indian and Alaska Native: 500
- Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander+White: 6,170
- Black or African American; Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 631
- Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander; Some other race: 786
- Asian, one race or in combination with other race(s): 395,741, or 7% of total population
- Native Hawaiian, one race or in combination with other race(s): 42,761, or 1% of total population
- Combined Asian, Native Hawaiian, one race or in combination with other race(s): 432,943 or 7% of total population
APA Demographics by Ethnicity, 2005 American Community Survey
Below are the latest figures for APA ethnicities in Washington State and represent undercounting.
| Group | Number |
Percent of State APA Population |
| Filipino | 87,871 |
19 |
| Chinese | 72,135 |
15.6 |
| Vietnamese | 60,543 |
13.1 |
| Korean | 51,929 |
11.2 |
| Asian Indian | 41,583 |
9 |
| Japanese | 40,115 |
8.7 |
| Other Asian | 44,042 |
10.3 |
| Samoan | 7,303 |
1.6 |
| Guamanian or Chamorro | 6,707 |
1.5 |
| Native Hawaiian | 7,654 |
1.7 |
| Other Pacific Islander | 6,736 |
1.5 |
Asian and Pacific Islander Ethnicities
note: the following is only a sampling of known ethnicities
| Asian | Pacific Islander | |||
| Asian Indian Bangladesh Bhutanese Borneo Cambodian Celebesian Ceram Chinese Filipino Hmong Ikinawan Indochinese Indonesian Iwo Jimayan |
Japanese Javanese Korean Laotian Malayan Maldivian Nepali Pakistani Sikkim Singaporean Sri Lankan Sumatran Thai Vietnamese |
Carolinia Fijian Guamanian Hawaiian Kosraean Melanesian Micronesian Northern Mariana Islander PaluanPapua New Guinean |
Polynesian Ponapean (Pohnpeian) Samoan Solomon Islander Tahitian Tarawa Islander Tongan Tukese (Chuukese) Yapese |
