Asian Population Growth and Distribution Pattern in Southern California, *

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1 PUBLIC RESEARCH REPORT No.21-6 Asian Population Growth and Distribution Pattern in Southern California, * Released: June 7, 21 Principal Authors: Lili Wang and HaeRan Shin The Asian population increased 38.6 % between 199 and 2 in Southern California, which is comparable with a 39.% increase in the Hispanic population. Orange County has the highest Asian growth rate (67.4%) of the five counties in Southern California. Moreover, Asians command the highest growth rate of any other major racial group in Orange County. There are Asian population growth clusters along the border of Orange County and Los Angeles County, and there is an Asian decreasing-zone around the City of Los Angeles. Increases of Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Filipino, and Korean significantly contributed to the growth of Asian population in Orange County, which is concentrated in Anaheim, Fullerton, Irvine, and Westminster. INTRODUCTION Asian Population in the Spotlight Many researches have focused on the decline of the White population and the increase of Hispanics since the 2 Census Data was released. Because the white population had long been the majority group in the US, the fact that their share of the population decreased below 5% in key areas such as California has garnered a lot of attention. Dramatically surging growth within the Hispanic population mainly explains the changes in population patterns in Southern California. Yet, the increase in the Asian population hasn t been in the spotlight because of its relative small share of the total population. But, what if we examine the changes of population composition by growth rate? Does Asian population increase the fastest, compared to other major racial/ethnic groups, in Southern California area and any of the five counties? Where is the Asian * The authors are grateful to Dowell Myers, Julie Park, Noel Hacegaba, Zhou Yu, and Liang Wei for providing data, maps, and their constructive comments. The authors alone retain responsibility for any errors and omissions. 1

2 population growth concentrated between 199 and 2? And how many cities in Southern California are Asian majority now? Ultimately, what about the distribution and growth pattern of some specific Asian Groups? To answer these questions, we examine the Asian population growth and distribution pattern in Southern California, We first compare the overall growth of Asian with other three major racial/ethnic groups White, Black, and Hispanic in Southern California area. Then we discuss the Asian population growth across five counties. Further, we analyze the growth and distribution of Asian population in 177 incorporated cities in Southern California area. And finally, we focus on the growth of six specific Asian groups in Orange County. METHOD AND DEFINITION Method for 199/2 consistencies While the 199 Census asked respondents to check off only one category for race/ethnicity, the 2 Census allowed people to mark as many as they wanted. For example, a multiracial person that is black-white-asian is free to identify him/herself in this or any combination. The problem is that there is no way to figure out which category that person selected in 199. Therefore, to make the data comparable between the two Census counts, we need to make a decision of method to allocate the 2 multiracial population to related single-race categories. In this paper, we use the equal fraction method (Myers and James 21) for multiracial allocation. The equal fraction method allocates the number of multiracial population equally to each single race category that the multiracial includes, assuming there are equal possibilities for each category. For example, a black-white-asian is identified as one-third Black, one-third White, and one-third Asian. Definition of Four Major Racial/Ethnic Groups The four major racial/ethnic groups for comparisons include Asian and Pacific Islanders, whites, blacks or African Americans, and Hispanics or Latinos. In spite of its historical importance, American Indian is excluded from this analysis due to its extremely small number of residents in Southern California. Non-Hispanic others are also meaningful in the population composition, but clearer comparisons need a rather exclusive definition. As a result of using the equal fraction allocation method for this analysis, we define the four major racial/ethnic groups as follows: 2

3 The Asian category includes all the Asian and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders in 199 and all the Asian and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander single race plus equal fraction of multiracial Asian and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. White category includes the non-hispanic White population in 199 and the non-hispanic single-race White population plus equal fraction of multiracial non-hispanic Whites. Black category includes the non-hispanic Black population in 199 and the non-hispanic single-race Black population plus equal fraction of multiracial non-hispanic Blacks. Hispanic population includes all the Hispanics, excluding Hispanic Asian and Native Hawaiian in 199. In 2, it includes all the Hispanic population, excluding Hispanic Asians and Hispanic Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, based on equal fraction method. Based on the definition, the four major racial/ethnic groups sum to more than 99% and 98% of the total population in Southern California in 1999 and 2, respectively. GROWTH PATTERN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Overall Growth Overall, the total population of four racial groups in Southern California has increased from 14.5 million to 16.2 million between 199 and 2. Growths in the Asian and Hispanic population contribute significantly to the total population growth in Southern California, Asians and Hispanics has increased about 39% over the decade, while Black population slightly increased 7% and White residents decreased by 1 % (Exhibit 1). As a result of the strong growth, the Asian s share of the total population in Southern California jumps to more than 1% in 2, as the Census data show. Exhibit 2 shows population growth rates of four major racial/ethnic groups in five counties of Southern California during the decade. Los Angeles County has the most stable trends of population change in terms of growth rate. Asian population has surged 29.%, and the number of Hispanic residents has increased 28%. In contrast, both White and Black population has declined in Los Angeles County during the ten years. White has the biggest decline, negative 16% growth rate, and Black population decreased 1%. 3

4 In Orange County, Asians have grown 67%, which is 11 points higher than the Hispanics growth rate. Black population has increased 19%, and the number of White residents has a bit decreased (4%). Riverside County is the only county with White increase (6%). The other three major racial groups have grown as well with 67% for Asians, 61% for Black, and 83% for Hispanics in Riverside County. In San Bernardino County, Asian residents have grown 61% while White population has decreased 11%. Blacks have surged 43%, and Hispanics have bloated up to 77%. White and Black populations in Ventura County have been stable with 1% decrease and increase, respectively. Asians and Hispanics changes are not as dramatic as other counties such as Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties, showing as much as a 36% gain for Asians and 43% for Hispanics over the decade. Comparisons of Asian Population Growth in Five Counties For this analysis, we focus on the Asian population, and Exhibit 3 explains why the Asian population deserves a special attention. The Asian population has dramatically grown in all five counties in Southern California. From 199 to 2, the Asian population in Southern California area has increased 38.6 %, reaching 1.85 million. Hispanics that has the similar growth rate with Asians (39%) has a wide range of growth rate from 28 to 83% over the five counties. Compared to that, the Asian population has grown a bit more evenly in five counties from 28.5 to 67.4 %. Orange County has an enormous growth rate (67.4 %) of the Asian population during the decade. Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, which located in the coast area, have relative less growth rates, 35.6 % for Ventura and 28.5 % for Los Angeles. San Bernardino and Riverside located in the eastern part of those counties have much higher growth rates. The Asian population in both counties has increased more than 5%, which means that the Asian population in 2 has been more than 1.5 times as much as that in 199. Ventura County has the smallest number of Asian population among five counties both in 199 and thousand and 46.9 thousand, respectively. In terms of proportion, Riverside s Asian has the least share of total population--2.6 % for 199 and 2.5% for 2. In Orange County, the number of the Asian residents in 199(249,192) has increased up to 417,161 in 2. Los Angeles County contributed to the increase most because of its most population of Asians. The number of the Asian residents in Los Angeles is 1,226,553 in 2, which is almost twice as many as the sum of those of the other counties. 4

5 Nonetheless, looking at Asians proportion of the total population in each county, we realize that Orange County has the highest proportion of the Asian population (15%) among the five counties. In 199, Asian population s share of the total population is the highest in Los Angeles County, but the share reduced to 13% in 2, which is less than that of Orange County. Asian Population Growth in Cities To show where the Asian population growth is concentrated in the five counties, we take a deep look at the Asian population growth pattern in 177 incorporated cities. We find that over 9% of the cities in Southern California has more Asian residents in 2 than it had in 199. Among those cities, the City of Los Angeles has the largest number of growth in Asian population, more than 55,, followed by Irvine and Garden Grove, which have over 24, increases. Totally, 1 cities gained more than 1, Asian populations during the last 1 years (see Exhibit 4). Overall, 15 cities in Southern California area have Asian population s share of total increased over 1 points. In addition, two more cities, Cerritos and Walnut, joined Monterey Park to be Asian majority cities in 2, and three cities, San Gabriel, San Marino, and Rosemead, are approaching Asian majority (see Exhibit 4). Both Cerritos and Walnut have only positive growth for Asian population, while negative growth in all the other three racial/ethnic categories. In terms of Asian population s growth rate, Murrieta city of Riverside far exceeds other cities. In 199, it only had 9 Asian residents about.5% of the total population, while in 2, the Asian population in the city has reached over 22 more than 5% of the total population. In addition, Asian population in 18 more cities, such as La Quinta, Palm Desert, Temecula, Tustin, etc. has more than doubled from 199 to 2. On the other hand, Asian population decreased in 16 cities in Southern California area. However, the number of decrease is relatively small, compared to its growth. Exhibit 4 shows the five cities Montebello, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lynwood, and Huntington Park with the largest number of Asian population decrease. Geographically, the Asian population growth clusters in those cities on the boarder of Los Angeles County and Orange County, such as Cerritos, La Habra Heights, La Palma, Fullerton, etc. In addition, there is an obvious Asian population decreasingzone around the City of Los Angeles (See Map 1), which includes cities of Montebello, Lynwood, Compton, etc. As the map shows, the Asian population in all the cities in Orange County has increased during the last decade, and more than half of the cities has Asian population growth rate of 7% or more. Thus, we will focus on Orange County for the further analysis of population changes in detailed Asian groups. 5

6 Asian Population Growth Pattern in Orange County The Asian population has not grown evenly in Orange County. The growth in the Asian population in Orange County is concentrated in such cities as Irvine and Newport Beach and such Asian categories as Asian Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Korea. In Exhibit 5 1, the number of Vietnamese in Orange County has grown by 87 percent during the 199 s, up to 129,926 in 2. Chinese is the second biggest group among Asians, but the growth rate is rather low (41%) compared to Vietnamese, Koreans, and Filipinos in the exhibit. The number of Koreans in 2 was 53 percent higher than the Census Bureau had previously estimated, and the total number of Filipinos has increased 55 percent. Japanese remained almost same with a low growth rate (1.5%), but in terms of number of growth, they are still more than Asian Indians, a group that increased second fastest with 72 percent up to 25,474 in 2. Exhibit 6 lists four cities that are significant in terms of increase in Asian population and its growth rates in Orange County. Fullerton contributes significantly to the number of Korean population in Orange County and the growth rate of Koreans. The number of Korean residents has doubled during the decade, up to 993. Irvine deserves attention in a sense that its Asian population in every category has grown more than 5 percent. Specially, Chinese population was concentrated in this city and grown 131 percent, to 14,973. Anaheim has the biggest Filipino population group in this county (8,33 in 2) and the second highest growth rate of Filipinos (96%). Vietnamese growth rate is highest in Anaheim, but the biggest contribution to the increase in Vietnamese population is from Westminster. While other Asian categories remained almost same, Vietnamese population has dramatically soared 138 percent, up to 27,19. CONCLUSION In this report, we examined the Asian population growth and distribution pattern in Southern California, We found that Asian population had grown as fast as Hispanic population in Southern California during the last ten years. However, not only the total number but also the increase in the Asian population was distributed unevenly in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura. We have observed the highest growth rate (67.4%) in Asian population in Orange County. All of the 31 incorporated cities in Orange County have more Asian residents in 2 than they had in 199. In addition, the Asian growth is 1 We don t consider other Asian categories in this exhibit because of its low numbers, and nor do we include other Asian category for a clear comparison among heterogeneous categories. Native Hawaiian and Guamanian categories showed negative growth rates during the decade. 6

7 concentrated in the cities along the border of Orange County and Los Angeles County. Two more cities in Los Angeles County have turned into Asian majority Cerritos and Walnut. In Orange County, about 15% of the total population are Asians in 2, compared to 1% in 199. Vietnamese is the largest Asian group in 2 and it has the highest growth rate in Orange County, reaching 13 thousand. The biggest contribution to the growth of Vietnamese is from Westminster city. Chinese is the second largest Asian group in Orange County and most of them live in Irvine city. Filipino has increased 55% in the county and Anaheim has the largest number of increase in Filipino population among 31 cities. In addition, Korean population has increased 53% in the county and Fullerton s Korean residents have doubled in the ten years. If the robust growth in Asian population remains, Asian s share of the total population in Southern California may approach 2 % in the next census. And seven cities Alhambra, Arcadia, Diamond Bar, La Palma, Rosemead, San Gabriel, and San Marino may join the others to become Asian majority. There is no doubt that Asian is playing a more and more important role in Southern California s political and economic arena in the new century. 7

8 Exhibit 1: Comparison of Population Growth Rates among Four Major Racial/Ethnic Groups in Southern California Growth Rate Asian NH_White NH_Black Hispanic

9 Exhibits 2: Comparison of Population Growth Rates among Four Major Racial/Ethnic Groups In Southern California Five Counties, Los Angeles County -2 Asian NH_White NH_Black Hispanic Orange County Riverside County Asian NH_White NH_Black Hispanic -2 Asian NH_White NH_Black Hispanic San Bernadino County Ventura County Asian NH_White NH_Black Hispanic -2 Asian NH_White NH_Black Hispanic

10 Exhibit 3. Comparison of Asian Population in Southern California Five Counties Growth Rate the Number of Asian Population, ,4, ,2, 1,, 8, 6, 4, 2, Los Angeles Orange Riverside San Bernardino Ventura Los Angeles Orange Riverside San Bernardino Ventura

11 Exhibit 4 : Asian Population Growth in Selected Southern California Cities,199-2 Positive Growth Number of Growth Growth Rate (%) Share of Total Population in 199 Share of Total Population in 2 (%) (%) City of Los Angeles Irvine Garden Grove Anaheim Westminster Arcadia Torrance Chino Hills Diamond Bar Alhambra Monterey Park Cerritos Walnut San Gabriel San Marino Rosemead Murrieta 2, Negative Growth Number of Growth Growth Rate (%) Share of Total Population in 199 (%) Share of Total Population in 2 (%) Montebello Hawthorne Inglewood Lynwood Huntington Park

12 Exhibit 5 : Asian Population Growth by Asian Categories, Orange County Change of Population Growth Rate 14, 1 12, 8 1, 8, 6, 4, 2, Vietnamese Chinese Korean Filipino Japanese Asian Indian Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese

13 Exhibit 6 : The Population of Asian Categories in Selected Orange County Cities <Fullerton> <Irvine> 16, 16, 14, 14, 12, 12, 1, 1, 8, 6, 4, 2, 8, 6, 4, 2, Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese <Anaheim> <Westminster> 16, 3, 14, 25, 12, 1, 2, 8, 15, 6, 1, 4, 2, 5, Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese Asian Indian Chinese Filipino Japanese Korean Vietnamese