List of U.S. cities with large Chinese American populations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cities with large Chinese American populations with a critical mass of at least 1% of the total urban population and at least 10% of the total suburban population. Information is based on the 2000 Census.
Urban and suburban cities with a pan-Asian American majority population are denoted in bold lettering.
Multi-generation Chinese Americans include those descended from earlier immigrants - from the 1850s to 1950s -and fully become Americanized and they often have very little social connections and interactions to the new Chinese immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants. In the post-1965 era, first- and second-generation immigrants include those from Mainland China (Mandarin-speaking), Taiwan (Mandarin and Taiwanese-speaking), and Hong Kong (Cantonese-speaking) Also included in the Chinese American population are ethnic Chinese from Vietnam (who speak Cantonese or Chaozhou Chinese) who might consider themselves more Chinese than Vietnamese, thus skewing Census reporting.
Regions with significantly large Chinese American populations include San Francisco, San Gabriel Valley and Silicon Valley in California and the Tri-State Region (New York and New Jersey) of the East Coast. The San Gabriel Valley region in particular has the largest collection of U.S. suburbs with foreign-born Chinese-speaking populations. They generally range from working-class Chinese Vietnamese refugees and immigrants residing in gritty Rosemead and El Monte to wealthy Taiwanese immigrants living in the upscale communities of San Marino and Diamond Bar
Areas with growing Chinese American populations include southern Orange County, California, Edison, New Jersey, Plano and Richardson, Texas.
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The following list of cities with a population of more than 250,000 have a Chinese American population in excess of 1 percent of the total.
- San Francisco, California - 19.6% (152,620)
- Honolulu, Hawaii - 10.7% (39,600)
- Oakland, California - 8.0% (31,834)
- San Jose, California - 5.7% (51,109)
- Sacramento, California - 4.8% (19,425)
- New York City, New York - 4.5% (361,531)
- Queens - 6.3% (139,820)
- Manhattan - 5.7% (86,974)
- Brooklyn - 4.9% (120,662)
- Staten Island - 1.7% (7,490)
- Plano, Texas - 4.3% (10,750)
- Seattle, Washington - 3.4% (19,415)
- Boston, Massachusetts - 3.3% (19,638)
- Chicago, Illinois - 1.8% (31,280)
- Los Angeles, California - 1.7% (63,075)
- Portland, Oregon - 1.4% (7,181)
- Houston, Texas - 1.2% (24,001)
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 1.2% (17,783)
The following list of cities with a population of between 100,000 and 250,000 have a Chinese American population in excess of 1 percent of the total.
- Fremont, California - 14.4% (29,240)
- Daly City, California - 13.6%
- Irvine, California - 10.5% - Taiwanese (~20,000)
- Sunnyvale, California - 9.56% (12,597)
- Berkeley, California - 7.4% (7,585)
The following list of places with a population less than 100,000 a Chinese American population in excess of 1 percent of the total.
Groups listed (e.g., Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese) after these cities form a large proportion of the Chinese-origin population.
With a Chinese American population of more than 400,000 in Los Angeles County, the majority are within the San Gabriel Valley, which are particularly noted for cities that have a Chinese American ethnic majority. The following cities have the highest percentage of Chinese Americans among the 40 cities that make up the San Gabriel Valley.
- Monterey Park, California - 41.2% (24,758) - Predominantly Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese, generally pan-Chinese
- San Marino, California - 40.6% (5,260) - Taiwanese
- Arcadia, California - 34.0% (18,041) - Taiwanese
- San Gabriel, California - 33.6% (13,376) - Chinese Vietnamese, but generally pan-Chinese
- East San Gabriel, California (unincorporated, but it has a San Gabriel post office) - 28.2% (4,096)
- Alhambra, California - 33.1% (28,437) - Mainland Chinese, Chinese Vietnamese
- Rosemead, California - 29.3% (15,678) - Mainland Chinese, Chinese Vietnamese
- Rowland Heights, California - 29.0% (14,057) - Taiwanese, growing number of Mainland Chinese
- Walnut, California - 28.6% (8,590) - Taiwanese
- Temple City, California - 27.9% (9,322) - Taiwanese
- Hacienda Heights, California - 22.4% (11,921) - Taiwanese
- Diamond Bar, California - 17.9% (10,091) - Taiwanese
- El Monte, California - 10.3% - Chinese Vietnamese
Source for above information: Wei Li "Building Ethnoburbia: The Emergence and Manifestation of the Chinese Ethnoburb in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley." Journal of Asian American Studies 2(1): 1-28 (1999).
- Cerritos, California - 15% - Taiwanese
- Cupertino, California - 23.8% (12,031) - Taiwanese
- Millbrae, California - 16.5% - Taiwanese
- Foster City, California - 16.3% - Taiwanese
- Milpitas, California - 12.9% - Taiwanese, Hong Kong Chinese, Mainland Chinese, Chinese Vietnamese, Chinese Filipinos, Chinese Indonesians, Macanese, American Chinese, Korean Chinese and Chinese Burmese (Milpitas, California has one of the most regionally diverse Chinese populations in the United States.)