Asian Americans: A Young, Fast-Growing, And High-Income Group

December 18, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

Asian-American | Boomers & Older | Household Income | Youth & Gen X

Nielsen-Asian-American-Household-Incomes-Dec2013Contrary to popular perception, Hispanics were actually not the fastest-growing minority group in the US last year, according to the Census Bureau. In fact, Asian-Americans were. A recent report [download page] from Nielsen takes a look at this fast-growing segment, which it says has increased in number by 58% since 2000. Notably, Asian-American households have significantly higher-than-average incomes: 29% have incomes of at least $100,000, compared to 18% of US households on average. And while 51% of US households have incomes of less than $50,000, the corresponding figure for Asian-American households is just 41%.

Overall, Asian-American household incomes grew by 97% between 2000 and 2013. Nielsen’s figures put the median Asian-American household income at $63,400 versus the national average of $49,600; while the Census Bureau’s latest figures – for 2012 – are slightly different, they do show that Asian-Americans have the highest median income of any race or ethnic group.

As far as age breakouts, the Nielsen data reveals that Asian-Americans tend to be slightly younger than the US population on average. That’s not the result of an abundance of children – in fact, a slightly smaller-than-average proportion of the Asian-American population is aged 0-17 (22% vs. 24%). Instead, Asian-Americans are far more likely to fall into the 25-44 age group (32% vs. 26%), while a smaller share are in the 55+ group (21% vs. 26%).

Given their high incomes and relative youth, it’s no surprise that Asian-American households are projected to outspend their white counterparts over the remainder of their lifetimes.

Where do most Asian-Americans live? According to Nielsen, the top-ranked DMA markets are LA (2.3 million) and New York (2.1 million), with close to 1.8 million also residing in San Francisco.

Of course, Asian-Americans are a diverse group comprising many different races. According to Nielsen’s report, a plurality 23% share are Chinese, while the next-largest groups by share are Asian Indian (19%), Filipino (17%), Vietnamese (11%), and Korean (10%).

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