Before the United States Census Bureau went about its decennial headcount in 2000, it reportedly spent more than $100 million on an advertisement blitz to convince Americans, specially the undercounted groups, to send back their forms.

Census 2000 forms were made available in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Tagalog, besides, of course, English. And the guides to filling in the forms were available in 48 languages. To encourage participation, census officials also stressed that no information would be shared with government agencies such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). All this was for good reason, as officials estimated that there was an undercount of about 1.6 percent in 1990, and a disproportionate number of those left out belonged to minority communities.

The data thrown up by Census 2000, the first decennial headcount in which citizens could check multiple boxes to clarify their racial identity, underlines with numbers trends pertinent to Asian Americans, including Indian Americans, that policymakers and academicians have long been talking about.

This group (Asians) is also better placed than most other racial categories in terms of income, education and the standard of living it provides for its children.

The census shows that the U.S. has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world, largely because of continuing immigration; and that, among the racial groups, Asian Americans, who constitute 3.6 percent of the total U.S. population, are growing most rapidly. This group is also better placed than most other racial categories in terms of income, education and the standard of living it provides for its children.

The latest decennial data also shows that recent demographic changes are no departure from a common pattern in American history of metropolitan areas becoming highly diverse and more crowded as new immigrants join friends and family. According to Census 2000 data, New York has a 50 percent white population, 27 percent African American, 11 percent Asian and 12 percent others. Hispanic and Latinos comprise 35 percent of the total population and can be of any race. Los Angeles has 62 percent whites, 11 percent African Americans, 11 percent Asians and 16 percent others, and a Hispanic-Latino population of 47 percent.

Houston has 56 percent white, 25 percent African American, 6 percent Asian and 13 percent others, and Hispanic-Latinos make up 30 percent of the total population. As one immigration expert put it: “If you want to see what the nation will look like in 2050, drive to one of the five major cities.”

One of the more important uses of census data based on race is in the legislative redistricting process carried out by the states and in monitoring local jurisdictions’ compliance with the Voting Rights’ Act, which provides for minority and majority districts.

The number of Asians and Pacific Islanders — the category which includes Indian Americans, identified in the census as Asian Indians — voting in congressional elections has increased by 366,000 between 1994 and 1998 to 1.4 million voters, according to a report by the Census Bureau.

While the high-income, high-education Indian-American community has made great strides in becoming visible campaign donors and politically important in the developing relations between India and the U.S., its inroads into the indigenous political system is yet to match its other achievements. And this is where the census data may make a difference.

It is already evident, and census figures underscore the fact, that most of the new Hispanic and Asian immigrants are settling in big electoral vote states such as California, New York, Texas and Florida, which are crucial to the presidential election. These communities are already forcing politicians to address their needs and the Census 2000 figures may make it easier to draw their attention.

As a Census Bureau brief put it, the data is also crucial for evaluating federal programs that promote equal access to employment, education, housing and for assessing racial disparities in health and exposure to environmental risks.

“More broadly, data on race,” says the brief, “are critical for research that underlies many policy decisions at all levels of government.”

Public and private organizations use race information to find out in which areas groups may need special services and to plan and implement education, housing, health and other programs. For example, an area with a particular density of South Asians may need to regularize screening for diabetes and the census data would help in doing that. The school system would be using the data to design cultural activity that reflects the diversity of a community in a particular area.

The Census 2000 data, according to some experts, should alsothe eyes of skeptics of investing in niche markets and introduce Hispanics and Asian Americans as lucrative target markets. In short, if the American mainstream has so far ignored the political and economic power of Hispanics and Asians, the Census 2000 data makes clear that it can, perhaps, afford to do so no longer.