Detailed tabulations are now available which pro-vide statistics on the civilian noninstitutional Asian and Pacific Islander population of the United States, based on the March 1996 Current Population Survey.  These tables provide information such as:

• In 1996, the Asian and Pacific Islander population was estimated at 9.6 million persons and represented 3.7 percent of the total population.
• There were 2.1 million Asian and Pacific Islander fam-ilies in 1996; of these about 80 percent were married-couple families; of the remaining 20 percent, 12 percent were families maintained by women and 8 percent were families maintained by men with no spouse present.
• Fifty-nine percent of all households maintained by an Asian or Pacific Islander householder had 3 or more persons in them in 1996.
• In 1996, 83 percent of all Asian and Pacific Islander persons 25 years of age and older had at least a high school education; about 42 percent  had at least a bachelor’s  degree.
• In 1995, the median earnings of Asian and Pacific Islander women and men working year-round, full-time were $24,880 and $31,570, respectively, for a female-to-male earnings ratio of 0.79.
• Asian and Pacific Islander families had a real median income of $46,360 in 1995.
• About 15 percent of all Asian and Pacific Islanders had incomes below the poverty level in 1995.