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MAY 2010

Vietnamese Americans

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, DiversityCentral.com is celebrating and examining the lives of Vietnamese Americans, the fifth-largest Asian Pacific American group in the United States. Though sometimes overlooked, their populations - especially in West Coast states - continue to rise, evident in the influx of immigrants and the rapid expansion of Vietnamese-owned businesses. Read below to learn more about this fast-growing group!

Population - General

  • In the 2000 Census, single-ethnicity Vietnamese respondents numbered 1.1 million, comprising about 90 percent of the total Vietnamese American population. Those with two or more Asian ethnicities numbered 47,144 (about 4 percent of the total) while those who were Vietnamese with at least one other race, such as White, numbered 54,064 (about 4 percent of the total).
  • From 1980 to 1990, the growth rate for Vietnamese Americans was 125.3 percent, the highest of the six major Asian ethnic groups. From 1990 to 2000, the growth rate slowed to 80.7 percent.
  • US cities with the highest percentages of Vietnamese Americans are: Westminster (30 percent), Garden Grove (about 22 percent), Milpitas (13 percent) and Fountain Valley, (12 percent), all in California.

Population - Concentrations in California

  • One third of the 1.2 million Vietnamese Americans counted in the 2000 Census live in California. Orange County alone is home to over 160,000.
  • San Jose is home to the largest number of Vietnamese Americans (over 85,000), making nearly one-tenth of all residents of Vietnamese origin. Notably, only 2 percent of police officers in San Jose are certified fluent in Vietnamese.
  • The next highest California populations are Garden Grove, California with 47,000, San Diego, California with 28,000 and Westminster, California with 35,000.

Immigrants

  • In 2006, 1.1 million foreign-born Vietnamese Americans were living in the United States, comprising 3 percent of the nation's total immigrant population.
  • Nearly two-thirds of all Vietnamese immigrants resided in six states in 2006: California (with 39.9 percent of the total), Texas (11.6 percent), Washington (4.4 percent), Virginia (3.4 percent), Florida (3.3 percent), and Massachusetts (3 percent).
  • More than two-thirds (68.7 percent) of Vietnamese immigrants had limited English proficiency in 2006. Only 26 percent were reported to speak English "very well," with far fewer numbers, 5.4 percent, speaking "English only."

Adoption Numbers

  • In the Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008, Vietnam had the sixth-highest adoption visa issuances, with 828 and 748 visas, respectively. In 2009, Vietnam dropped to seventh place with 481 issuances.
  • The 481 Vietnamese adoption visa issuances comprised 8.5 percent of that year's 5,807 total adoption visa issuances for the Asian continent.

Businesses and Their Economic Impact

  • From 1997 to 2002, the number of Vietnamese-owned businesses in the U.S. grew by 50 percent, with revenue growing by 66 percent. By 2002, the U.S. was home to over 147,000 Vietnamese-owned firms, with 125,900 employees and 16 billion dollars in revenue.
  • California had the most firms (50,321) owned by Vietnamese Americans, accounting for 34.2 percent of the total. Texas came in second, with 24,263 firms, or 16.5 percent of the total. Vietnamese-owned firms in California and Texas account for 1.7 and 1.4 percent of all the nation's firms, respectively.
  • The top four industries accounting for the largest Vietnamese-owned firm revenues were retail (23 percent), other services such as personal, repair and maintenance (18.8 percent), wholesale trade (11.5 percent), and manufacturing (11.4 percent).
  • Over 5,000 Vietnamese Americans own businesses in Santa Clara County, California, alone.

Education

  • Of the over 1 million Vietnam-born adults age 25 and older, 30.8 percent had no high school diploma or GED in 2006, compared to 32 percent of all 30.9 million foreign-born adults.
  • About 25 percent of Vietnam-born adults had a high school diploma or GED in 2006, up from 19 percent in 2000. About 24 percent of all foreign-born adults had a diploma or equivalency.
  • In 2006, roughly 24 percent of Vietnamese immigrants obtained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to about 19 percent in 2000. For all immigrants, the number was nearly 27 percent.

SOURCES:

www.adoption.state.gov

www.asian-nation.org

www.census.gov

www.hmongstudies.org

www.migrationinformation.org

Disclaimer: Although we try to use the most credible sources, we are not responsible for any incorrect findings.

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