Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May became American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in 1992. In 1978, it was first only recognized for a week to coincide with two important milestones: the arrival of the first Japanese Immigrants in 1843 and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad by Chinese workers in 1869.

Here are some interesting facts about Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. In a 1997 US OMB directive, the Asian or Pacific Islander racial category was split into 2 separate categories.

In 2020, there were approximately 24 million people who identified as Asian alone or in combination.
In 2020, there were approximately 1.6 million people identified as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone or in combination.

There are approximately 5.1 million people who are of the Asian alone or in combination population of Chinese, except Taiwanese, descent. Chinese was the largest group.
In 2020, there were approximately 619,855 Native Hawaiians.

In 2019, there were approximately 2.5% Asian alone or in combinationwho are military veterans.
In 2020, there were approximately 35, 152 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone who were military veterans.

There were approximately 7.2 million of the population 25 years and older who had a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education.
In 2020, there were approximately 71,224 people identified as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 25 years and older who had a bachelor’s degree or higher.

There were approximately 11.4 million Asians 25 years and older who had at least a high school diploma or equivalency.
In 2020, there were approximately 337,408 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 25 years and older who had at least a high school diploma or equivalency.

In 2019, there were approximately 581,200 Asian-owned employer firms.
In 2019, there were approximately 7331 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned employer firms.