It’s Now Easier to Find Government Data on Asian-Americans

By Jamilah King Oct 01, 2014

For decades, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have been left out of big studies that focus on race and ethnicity. A couple of years ago, Pew released a comprehensive report called "The Rise of Asian-Americans," but even that was widely panned for playing up the model minority myth.

"Our community is one of stark contrasts, with significant disparities within and between various subgroups.," Congresswoman Judy Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said back in 2012 after the release of Pew’s report. "The ‘Asian Pacific American’ umbrella includes over 45 distinct ethnicities speaking over 100 language dialects, and many of the groups that were excluded from this report are also the ones with the greatest needs."

The White House Initiative on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders just launched a new initiative that it hopes will offer broader statistical data on the diverse set of ethnicities that make up the AAPI community. On Tuesday, the initiative announced that Data.gov/AAPI is open for business.

"The launch of Data.gov/AAPI marks an important milestone for better understanding and responding to the complex needs of AAPIs, now the fastest growing racial group in the country," WHIAAPI executive director Kiran Ahuja said in a press release.

Already, the trove of information offers an important glimpse into the often underreported experiences of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

  • In the first year of college, Asian American and black students have the highest enrollment rates in remedial education courses. Explore the data.
  • Of the immigrant orphans adopted by United States citizens, nearly half are of Asian descent. Explore the data.
  • Pacific Islanders have among the highest unemployment rates of all racial and ethnic groupsExplore the data.
  • The AAPI community is expected to more than double to over 47 million by 2060. Explore the data.

The new website features roughly 2,000 data sets and reports from nearly 50 federal, state, city and county sources. See more at Data.gov/AAPI.

The White House also released this video about the new website: