When Census 2000 collected data on race, it showed Asians were the fastest-growing group in this country, increasing by 48.26 percent between 1990 and 2000. Not only that, the Asian population increased faster than the total population between 1990 and 2000.

Among the 11,898,828, who reported themselves as Asian or mixed Asian-American, the Chinese were the largest group, followed by Filipinos and Indians.

People of Indian descent now number nearly two million (1.9 million, of which about 1.7 were of only-Indian origin and the rest, Indian in combination with another race). Chinese formed 2.7 million. Filipinos counted up to 1.9 million with an additional 0.5 million who reported a combination of Filipino and other.

Indian Americans constituted 0.6 percent of the total U.S. population and had an average annual growth rate of 7.6 percent. Between 1990 and 2000, the community had grown by 105.87 percent.

Together, Chinese, Filipinos and Indian Americans accounted for 58 percent of all respondents who reported a single Asian group. Of all Asian groups mentioned in race combinations, these three groups accounted for 57 percent of all responses. The Census Bureau’s brief on ‘The Asian Population: 2000,’ authored by Jessica S. Barnes and Claudette E. Bennett, also showed that about 50 percent of all Asians resided in just three states: California, New York and Hawaii.

SOUTH ASIANS IN U.S.
Asian Indians	1,678,765
Bangladeshi	41,280
Bhutanese	153
Burmese	13,159
Nepalese	7,858
Pakistani	153,533
Sri Lankan	20,145
(The numbers are of respondents categorized as reporting only one Asian group. Differences with other Census Bureau tables is because the category covers more detailed groups.) Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Two of these states had Asian populations exceeding one million: California (4.2 million) and New York (1.2 million). Of all the people who reported as Asian, 49 percent lived in the West; 20 percent, in the Northeast; 19 percent, in the South; and 12 percent in the Midwest.

Although Asians resided in an array of counties, their largest concentrations tended to be found in coastal or urban counties, according to the report. And in the counties, which had more than twice the national average, Asian Americans were predominantly concentrated in the suburbs of large metropolitan areas such as New York City, Newark, N.J. and Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Census 2000 showed that of all the places in the United States with 100,000 or more population, New York had the largest Asian population, with 872,777, followed by Los Angeles with 407,444.

Of the total population of Indian Americans, the largest concentrations were in the states of California (314,819), New York (251,724) and New Jersey (169,180).

In three states — Illinois (1%), New Jersey (2.01%), New York (1.33%) — Indian-Americans formed more than 1 percent of the total population. In another 10 they formed more than 0.5 percent of the population. These were Maryland (0.94%), California (0.93%), Connecticut (0.69%), Virginia (0.69%), Massachusetts (0.69%), Delaware (0.67%), Texas (0.62%), Georgia (0.56%), Michigan (0.55%), and District of Columbia, (0.50%).