In 2000, 7.2 million of the nation’s foreign-born residents were born in Asia, up from 5.0 million in 1990. The increase represented a continuation of this population’s rapid growth since 1970, when it numbered about 800,000. The total more than tripled in the 1970s, then nearly doubled in the 1980s.

Asian-born residents comprised 26 percent of the country’s foreign-born population in 2000, not statistically different from 1990.¹ Previously, their share doubled from 9 percent in 1970 to 19 percent in 1980.

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¹ Categories of ethnicity and race are not interchangeable with geographic region. For example, about 15 percent of the foreign born from Asia are White non-Hispanic.