The New York/New Jersey/Connecticut Urban Region is home to 20 million people of vastly diverse backgrounds. This report, one of several profiling the Region’s ethnic populations, was prepared for the Asian American Advisory Committee and the United Way of Tri-State by the Regional Plan Association. Funding was provided by the Exxon Foundation, Sally Wong Leung, the New York Life Foundation, Primerica Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The Region is a world-class center of cultural and international corporate and financial decision- making. It provides ten million jobs, produces 11 percent of the gross national product and has one of the highest average per capita incomes in the United States. Centered on the Manhattan Central Business District, the Region encompasses 13,000 square miles in 31 counties united by a hub- bound transportation system into a common labor and housing market. It is also a major point of entry for immigrants and the home of one of the largest Asian American communities in the United States.
The purpose of this study is the establishment of a base of information for the assessment of the social service needs of the Tri-State Region’s Asian American population. In this study, the definition of Asian American is limited to those persons with ancestral ties to the Pacific Rim countries: China, the Philippines, Korea, Japan, Indochina and Southeast Asia. Asian Indians, Pakistanis, Other Southwest and Middle East Asians have not been included. The base, which contains previously unavailable Census data and post-Census trends, depicts the present and likely future size of the Asian American population, its settlement patterns and its socio-economic characteristics. The complete data base resides with the Regional Plan Association and the Asian American Advisory Committee.