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Largest Asian-American Ethnic Groups

Name all the Asian-American ethnic groups of at least 100,000 people in the United States.
Source: 2021 American Community Survey. Based on self-identification.
Includes East Asia and South Asia but NOT the Middle East
Give the name of the group, not the country. For example, people from Mexico are Mexicans.
Quiz by JWatson24
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Last updated: March 17, 2023
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First submittedJuly 28, 2019
Times taken34,766
Average score80.0%
Rating3.97
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# of Residents
Answer
5,549,293
Chinese
includes Taiwanese
4,797,210
Indian
4,426,904
Filipino
2,288,082
Vietnamese
1,962,184
Korean
1,636,634
Japanese
629,946
Pakistani
369,562
Cambodian
# of Residents
Answer
368,609
Hmong
319,617
Thai
261,885
Bangladeshi
248,920
Laotian
248,822
Burmese
229,325
Nepalese
161,807
Indonesian
+14
Level ∞
Nov 29, 2020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_group

"An ethnic group or ethnicity is a grouping of humans based on people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups such as a common set of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, culture, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area."

In other words, a nationality IS an ethnic group, but so are other things. Not only that, but a person can belong to multiple ethnic groups. And while ethnicity can be based on your DNA, it certainly doesn't have to be.

+5
Level 71
Mar 17, 2023
With the new update, Nepalese and Indonesian have been added! Also, Indians have overtaken Filipinos to become the second largest group. Other then that, most of the trends remain the same.
+11
Level 66
Jul 29, 2019
Surprised Taiwanese is not included
+20
Level 71
Jul 29, 2019
Taiwanese is actually considered part of the Chinese-American population on this quiz. Thanks for pointing it out though--I'll add it as one of my caveats.
+4
Level 57
Jul 31, 2019
Lebanese not one?
+16
Level 71
Jul 31, 2019
Lebanese-Americans are not considered as people originating from the Middle East were not considered "Asian Americans" by the 2010 United States census, being counted as "white" instead. However, the Lebanese-American population is ~502,000, so if they were considered Asian-American they would be on this list.
+31
Level 44
Dec 22, 2020
Oh that's weird. That seems really arbitrary to me that the US gov't just doesn't classify a people from the continent of Asia, as Asians. Don't really get that one.
+12
Level 57
Dec 23, 2020
Lebanese people are more Mediterranean than proper Asian people, they share more with North Africa or Southern Europe than with East Asia... In fact that points the problems with US "race" classification, too, in my European point of view. Continents are freaking huge, and Asia is by far the hugest so "Asian-American" or "asian" itself doesn't mean much , whereas people of European descent are considered "white" but are Italian-American, Polish-American, etc... "African-American" seems quite different because it refers to the specific descent of former African slaves... but it excludes people who have Northern African origins or simply people of late African descent like former US president Obama...
+13
Level 79
Mar 22, 2023
"proper Asian" is just so wrong to me on any level
+4
Level 52
May 23, 2023
Isn't "African-American" used for all black people from the states, no matter if they descent from slaves or from immigrants who came to the country more recently?
+1
Level 69
May 23, 2023
By your logic, Russians and Turks would be considered ethnically Asian even though they are clearly more closely related to the people of Europe.
+2
Level 71
May 23, 2023
There are white Turks as well but Turkish people are mostly a Middle Eastern people. They have some European influences but overall they're not really European.
+7
Level 51
Nov 29, 2020
Congrats on the Feature! Very well deserved.
+8
Level 71
Nov 29, 2020
Thanks so much! :) It feels incredible to have been on this site for several years (mostly playing/commenting but also making a few quizzes) and to have finally had my first feature!
+12
Level 89
Nov 29, 2020
Accept Lao for Laotian?
+3
Level ∞
Nov 29, 2020
Lao will work now.
+5
Level 74
Nov 29, 2020
« Han » should be accepted for Chinese
+3
Level ∞
Nov 29, 2020
That will work now.
+3
Level 47
Nov 29, 2020
Great quiz! I knew there are a lot of Filipino-Americans, but I hadn't realized that they were the second-largest Asian-American group!
+13
Level 75
Nov 29, 2020
Why is Hmong on here but not sub-groups of Indians?
+11
Level ∞
Nov 29, 2020
Indians are many things, but there are no Hmong among them.
+36
Level 67
Dec 22, 2020
You mean aHmong them?
+1
Level 48
May 23, 2023
haha
+48
Level 71
Nov 29, 2020
I'm guessing what HinesBrothers meant was why individual Indian groups like Gujaratis, Punjabis, etc. are not on here while Hmong are. My best guess is that the Hmong aren't willing to identify as Vietnamese or Chinese while Indian sub-groups identify as Indian. As Quizmaster said in the pinned comment, ethnicity can be pretty vague, and ultimately on a census people will put down how they self-identify. "Gujarati" is as much an ethnicity as "Indian," but on the census most people of that group will identify as "Indian" so that's what we have on the quiz.
+1
Level 51
May 26, 2021
Plus, you'll probably have ~3-4 of them on here which would make the quiz quite boring.
+14
Level 76
Nov 29, 2020
Tried Mongolian and got the point for Hmong - it looks like Hmong allows you to leave out the leading H - maybe should require that first H to stop unrelated flukes? Also, Laotian people are frequently referred to as Lao, maybe also allow Lao as an answer?
+4
Level ∞
Nov 29, 2020
All fixed now.
+25
Level 84
Nov 29, 2020
The word "groups" is confusing. I tried listing ethnic groups like "Lao" and "Bengali", only to find that you have to type "Laotian" and "Bangladeshi". Indian and Pakistani are the same ethnic group, so I didn't bother to try Pakistani. Pakistani is a nationality. What you meant to say was "Largest Asian American Nationalities".
+5
Level ∞
Nov 29, 2020
The term ethnic group is correctly used. Please read the stickied comment.
+10
Level 87
Nov 29, 2020
I think having "Lao" and "Hmong" as separate groups would be acceptable, but not "Hmong" and "Laotians". Hmong ARE Laotians (but they're not Lao).
+4
Level 61
Jun 28, 2022
Many Hmong live in Laos, but certainly not all of them. Many live in China and Vietnam.
+3
Level 67
May 23, 2023
And Minnesota.
+7
Level 73
Nov 29, 2020
Khmer should be accepted for Cambodian.
+7
Level 72
Nov 29, 2020
I agree. Khmer is an ethnic group, Cambodian is a nationality. Just as in the previous comment, where Lao and Hmong are ethnic groups, while Laotian is a nationality.
+2
Level ∞
Nov 29, 2020
The term ethnic group is correctly used. Please read the stickied comment.
+11
Level 66
Nov 30, 2020
Burmese sure roles off the tongue better than Myanmarese...
+3
Level 73
Mar 17, 2023
To be fair, part of the reason for that is that the demonym form of "Myanmar" is "Myanma"
+12
Level 82
Nov 30, 2020
Perhaps a caveat that specifies that groups are not necessarily nationalities would be helpful, given that all but one of these are a nationality. I mean I don't know why Hmong is singled out, but not say, Tamil or Hakka or any of hundreds of others amongst these populations. I know the quiz says 'ethnic groups', but everything else leads you to believe this is ethnic groups as defined by nationality, so it would be helpful to just make it a tad more explicit.
+11
Level 71
Nov 30, 2020
I actually had a caveat like this on my original quiz, but Quizmaster removed it when he featured the quiz. I think it's fair to re-add the caveat since Hmong is kinda an outlier in this regard, but I'll let Quizmaster make the final call on this.
+10
Level 75
Dec 12, 2020
Please accept Yamato for Japanese and Bengali for Bangladeshi
+6
Level 57
Dec 20, 2020
About 1/3 of Bengalis are Indians, so it would be wrong to say that Bengalis and Bangladeshis are the same thing. That said, I did try Bengali after I got Bangladeshi only to see if it would work.
+1
Level 74
Dec 22, 2020
Second Yamato, in fact I think that should be the word that appears.
+4
Level 71
Dec 22, 2020
Okinawans?
+5
Level 70
Dec 22, 2020
Thanks to Gran Torino I remembered the Hmong!
+4
Level 83
Dec 22, 2020
Surely if you include Hmong as a separate group, then Sikhs, Tamils, Bengalis etc. etc. should be considered?
+3
Level 71
Dec 22, 2020
Please see the comments above. This is all from Census data and the Census typically identifies based on national origin. Hmong are an exception most likely because they don't identify with a nationality.
+2
Level 65
Dec 22, 2020
Wowowowow! Filipinos are 2nd!
+3
Level 61
Dec 22, 2020
Russians are not on this list, I know part of Russia is in Europe but the majority of it is in Asia and they did have Alaska for a long period of time.
+2
Level 53
Apr 15, 2021
Russians are considered white, whether or not they are from Asia. Even if they did count, I doubt there would be enough of them, due to the low population of the region and few settling in Alaska.
+3
Level 71
Apr 15, 2021
There are actually a lot of Russians (or people of Russian descent) living in America, and if they were considered Asian they'd easily make this list. But the vast majority of Russians live in Europe and most of the ones that live in Asia are descended from European settlers in Siberia. The indigenous people of Siberia, such as Turkic and Tungusic peoples, would probably be considered Asian, but there aren't a ton of those in the US.
+4
Level 51
May 26, 2021
Besides, 95% of the immigrants came from European Russia.
+2
Level 79
Dec 22, 2020
Hmong should be an auto-answer which is greyed in. The premise of the entire quiz is poor given a large part of Asia is excluded.
+6
Level 63
Dec 22, 2020
Shouldn't Bengali be accepted?
+7
Level 65
Dec 23, 2020
I agree, I typed Bengali only to have it be the one I missed. People more experienced with languages won't realize they have to type "Bangladeshi".
+2
Level 56
Dec 26, 2020
But, 1/3rd of the Bengalis are Indians.
+8
Level 70
Dec 23, 2020
One more person who missed "Bangladeshi" after "Bengali" didn't work.
+5
Level 70
Dec 23, 2020
"Give the name of the group, not the country"

So surely this would be ethnic groups. In some cases, ethnic groups have been largely combined in the American context (hence "Indian" and "Filipino" while the Hmong/Laotian distinction is preserved). But that WOULD mean accepting "Bengali."

+2
Level 71
Dec 24, 2020
Yes, it is indeed asking for the name of the group, not the country. That's why the quiz accepts "Bangladeshi" and not "Bangladesh" or "Bengali" (the latter of which crosses national borders).

As I've already said, the Census can't take everything into account and relies a lot on self-identification. Organizing things by nationality makes more sense from an official perspective because it's more concrete and less complicated than identifying the thousands of cultural/linguistic ethnic groups across America. If you have complaints with this system, take it up with the Census Bureau, not me.

+2
Level 61
Dec 26, 2020
I know "Filipino" is more commonly used than "Philippine", but please accept the latter as an answer.
+5
Level 56
Apr 1, 2021
Maybe you should accept “pinoy” for “filipino”? It’s the informal demonym relating to the Filipino people
+4
Level 71
Apr 2, 2021
That'll work now!
+2
Level 71
Apr 9, 2021
Nice quiz! Got all of them
+2
Level 38
Jan 26, 2022
I was looking through the user created quizzes starting with j to see how popular I was (35 takes on 4 quizzes) and I saw you with ONE featured quiz. Above zero, but no more than one. And it was a good quiz!

Small print:

I forgot Indian.

+2
Level 71
Jan 26, 2022
Haha, thanks! I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I have another quiz that is quite popular and has been nominated a lot, and I have a feeling it'll get featured soon :)
+4
Level 60
Feb 10, 2022
I thought Pakistan was part of the Middle East?
+4
Level 71
Feb 10, 2022
Nope. Where'd you hear that? I'm not judging you for not knowing, but Pakistan is almost always considered part of South Asia.
+7
Level 65
Dec 7, 2022
Why is the Middle East not included? It's in Asia.
+3
Level 71
Dec 7, 2022
Yes, but the US Census considers Middle Easterners white. Don't ask me why--personally, I consider them Asian-Americans. But this quiz follows the Census Bureau definitions so I can't change that.
+2
Level 89
Mar 18, 2023
Yeah, that really makes no sense seeing as the term Asia started out meaning the eastern Mediterranean & Persia.
+4
Level 89
Mar 17, 2023
India has dozens of large ethnicities, for example there are millions of Bengalis in India who aren't Bangladeshi
+4
Level 89
Mar 18, 2023
I was pretty confused by Bangladeshi as an ethnicity too.
+1
Level 68
Mar 26, 2023
I need to get better about reading the caveats before I start the quiz…
+1
Level 69
May 23, 2023
These specifications aren't good.
+1
Level 66
May 23, 2023
What causes Malaysia to be absent? I think I've read that there were strained relations between Malaysia/USA. I'm not sure why. Maybe due is Islam, or corruption issues. I think there are problems in the sea in that area/piracy. I know of the Strait of Malacca- but there are so many countries in that area that I don't know which does what.

I guess Malaysia is richer than Indonesia on a per capita basis.

+2
Level 70
May 23, 2023
Malaysia is fairly developed with a strong economy, and it has 1/8th of the population of Indonesia, whose diaspora barely makes it on the list.
+1
Level 69
May 23, 2023
Oh my god this quiz could take so much improvement

1. these are mostly nationalities

2. why would you then single out hmong, which is an ethnicity, but just write "indian", which is a nationality instead of singling out the different indian ethnic groups. Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayali, Sindhi, Marathi etc

3. Bangladeshi is again a nationality. Bengali is the ethnicity but that somehow isn't accepted

4. Same for China. "Chinese" is a nationality, Han is the (major) ethnic group. Taiwanese people are an entirely separate ethnicity, though the majority of citizens of Taiwanese nationality are also Han.

5. Indonesian is also not an ethnicity but a nationality. Javanese is the most prominent ethnicity here, but there are many many others once again.

6. Pakistani is also a nationality, not an ethnicity

+1
Level 62
May 23, 2023
I agree; I don't think this quiz should be featured. To me, the word "ethnic" is essentially the person's race. If culture and tradition are said to be part of ethnicity, I'd accept some of that, but when people say "ethnic" they do not mean the nationality; they mean race.
+3
Level 71
May 23, 2023
Can you please read the pinned comment by Quizmaster, and literally every other comment in the comment section, before judging my quiz? This issue has already been brought up so many times, and I already explain why this quiz is like this so many times. The quiz is factually correct as is. If it makes you upset, then make your own quiz on the topic instead of criticizing mine.
+1
Level 40
May 23, 2023
American government sure had a weird understanding of ethnicity...
+1
Level 59
May 23, 2023
We should build a wall

joke btw

+1
Level 66
May 23, 2023
To keep the Mongols out?
+3
Level 68
May 23, 2023
I quit when I realised there were no Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, but Indian. You should switch to "nationalities", instead of "ethnicities".
+1
Level 30
May 23, 2023
I was thinking people from Laos, yet wasn't sure what they were called! Got 13/15 though without Laotians and Hmungs :)
+2
Level 57
May 23, 2023
"So, are you Chinese or Japanese?"

"I'm Laotian. I come from Laos."

"The ocean, what ocean?"

+2
Level 69
May 23, 2023
Accept Bengali for Bangladeshi?
+2
Level 67
May 25, 2023
I think you should rename this quiz, replacing the word "ethnicity" with "country of origin".

All but one of the answers in your list are demonyms for sovereign states, many of which are multi-ethnic countries, and it's completely absurd to use those particular demonyms to describe ethnicities.

For example, India alone has more than 700 officially recognised ethnicities, and even if you try and group the larger ones into broader categories, you're still going to be left with several clusters that are as different and distinguishable from each other as African ethnicities are from European ethnicities, but within each of those clusters you're still going to find separate ethnicities that are as ethnically different from each other as Swedes, Italians and Russians are from each other.

Still a very interesting quiz, though. Thanks for putting it together and updating it.

+2
Level 60
May 27, 2023
'Bengali' should be acceptable.
+1
Level 54
May 28, 2023
I love this quiz! Very informative.
+2
Level 67
Aug 9, 2023
Missed Hmong
+1
Level 67
Apr 1, 2024
Please allow Bengali to work.