Asian population by state

The ranking column is the Census Bureau's estimate of residents who are Asian alone, of any Hispanic origin, on July 1, 2025. The second column adds people who reported Asian together with one or more other races, from the 2025 American Community Survey. The third keeps only Asian residents who are not Hispanic, the measure used for the long-term trend further down.

The states with the most Asian residents

Share and number lead to different lists. Hawaii has the highest share but only 1,432,820⁶ residents in all, so it ranks only 9th largest by number of Asian residents. California² combines the second-highest share with the largest population and is far ahead of every other state.

The rank column uses the 2020–2024 survey, which ranks every state on the same five-year basis. The single year 2025 reorders the lower rows: Georgia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania each had more Asian residents than Hawaii, by more than the margins of error. Texas, with a share just 0.2 percentage points below the US figure (6.9%)¹, is third by number because of its size. Wyoming has the fewest (smallest² by number in 2020–2024), with 8,540 (±1,253³) Asian residents in 2025.

Hawaii: more than half Asian when mixed heritage counts

Hawaii56.6% ±0.4

California19.4% ±0.1

Washington14.6% ±0.1

Nevada13.1% ±0.2

New Jersey12.5% ±0.1

New York11.9% ±0.1

Virginia9.9% ±0.1

Massachusetts9.6% ±0.1

Alaska9.4% ±0.3

Maryland9.0% ±0.1

United States8.1% ±0.0

Illinois7.9% ±0.0

District of Columbia7.9% ±0.3

Source: Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2025, table B02011. Whiskers show the 90% margin of error; states whose whiskers overlap may not differ significantly. Period: 2025.

Show the numbers

State	Asian (alone or in combination)	MOE
Hawaii	56.6%	±0.4
California	19.4%	±0.1
Washington	14.6%	±0.1
Nevada	13.1%	±0.2
New Jersey	12.5%	±0.1
New York	11.9%	±0.1
Virginia	9.9%	±0.1
Massachusetts	9.6%	±0.1
Alaska	9.4%	±0.3
Maryland	9.0%	±0.1
United States	8.1%	±0.0
Illinois	7.9%	±0.0
District of Columbia	7.9%	±0.3

Hawaii is the one state where the definition changes the answer to "is it majority Asian". Residents who reported Asian as their only race were 36.7% of the population on July 1, 2025. Adding everyone who reported Asian together with another race brings the 2025 survey figure to 56.6% (±0.4 percentage points), 48.5 percentage points above the US figure (8.1%). In no other state does the multiracial count move the share by nearly as much: in California it goes from 17.5%¹ to 19.4%⁴.

Two groups make up most of Hawaii's Asian population. In 2020–2024, 14.3% of residents reported Filipino alone and 11.7% Japanese alone, the highest shares of either group in any state. Counting people of mixed background, the shares rise to 25.7% Filipino and 22.0%⁸ Japanese. Hawaii also has the highest share of people who reported two or more Asian groups, such as Japanese and Chinese (3.4%⁷).

Hawaii is also the only state where the Asian alone share fell after 2020: it was 36.7% in 2025, down from 37.4% in 2020¹. Native Hawaiians are not part of these figures; they are counted in a separate race group, covered below.

The largest Asian group in each state

Nationally, Asian Indian is the largest group in the 2020–2024 survey (4,625,449), followed by Chinese, except Taiwanese and Filipino⁷. State by state, five different groups come first:

• Asian Indian is the largest group in more than half the states, from New Jersey, Texas and Illinois to Georgia, Ohio and West Virginia.
• Chinese comes first in California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon, and in Utah, Maine and Vermont.
• Filipino leads in Hawaii, Nevada and Alaska and across the interior West and northern Plains: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.
• Vietnamese leads in Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
• Hmong leads in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In several smaller states, among them Mississippi, Vermont, Wyoming and South Dakota, the first and second groups are nearly the same size and within each other's margins of error, so their order could change with the next survey.

Counts are people who reported one Asian group and no other race, American Community Survey 2020–2024. The Census Bureau's label for the Chinese group excludes Taiwanese, who are counted separately.

Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese

The six largest groups each have their own geography. National figures are for 2025, state rankings for 2020–2024.

• Asian Indian: 5,410,622 (±77,464) nationally. California has the most (1,023,236 in 2025), then Texas (707,837) and New Jersey. The highest share is in New Jersey, 4.9% of residents in 2025, then California and Illinois.
• Chinese (except Taiwanese): 4,645,729 (±51,042). Most in California (1,539,845) and New York (720,177); highest shares in Hawaii (4.1%), California (3.9%) and New York (3.6%).
• Filipino: 3,378,489. California has 1,295,021, more than six times as many as second-place Hawaii, but the share is highest in Hawaii (14.3%), Nevada (4.5%) and Alaska (3.5%).
• Vietnamese: 2,068,703. Most in California (682,386) and Texas (301,815), with Florida third; Texas is the only state outside the West among the three highest shares (1.0%).
• Korean: 1,607,918 (±35,948). Most in California (469,485), New York (119,941) and New Jersey (100,766). The highest shares, Hawaii (1.4%), California (1.2%) and New Jersey (1.1%), are close together.
• Japanese: 774,125 (±24,605⁹) alone, but 1,794,869¹⁰ alone or in any combination, more than twice as many; no other large group has so many people of mixed background. California (249,556) and Hawaii (168,487) have the most, far ahead of New York (35,745⁷).

Which of the two largest groups is "the largest" depends on the measure. Counting one group alone, Asian Indian is clearly ahead of Chinese. Counting everyone who reported a group alone or with another race or group, Chinese (5,971,959, ±65,011) and Asian Indian (5,906,267, ±78,398) are so close that their margins of error overlap, and the survey does not show which is larger. Filipino follows at 5,155,505¹⁰.

Smaller groups with a clear home state

Several groups are concentrated far from the coasts that hold most Asian residents:

• Hmong: 110,249 (±8,282) in Minnesota in 2025, 1.9% of the state, and 1.1%⁹ of Wisconsin. Only California had more Hmong residents in 2020–2024.
• Burmese: Indiana has the most of any state (27,101 in 2020–2024), more than California, and the highest share (0.40%); Nebraska is next (0.34%).
• Nepalese and Bhutanese: Texas has the most Nepalese residents and Ohio the second most; Vermont has the highest share (0.25%). Bhutanese residents are most numerous in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
• Bangladeshi: New York has 120,404, several times any other state; Michigan is second.
• Cambodian: the highest shares are in Rhode Island (0.47%) and Massachusetts (0.43%).
• Pakistani and Afghan: Texas has the most Pakistani residents (97,985) and Virginia the highest share; Virginia also has the highest Afghan share (0.23%⁷).

Where shares rose fastest since 2020

The national Asian share went up from 6.2% in 2020, a rise of 0.7 percentage points. Every state except Hawaii gained. Washington had the largest increase, 2.0 percentage points (up from 9.8% in 2020), which moved it past New York and New Jersey into third place. Nevada and California each gained 1.3 percentage points, Texas 1.1 percentage points, and New Jersey, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia 1.0 percentage points¹ each.

In the states with the lowest shares the changes were a few tenths of a point: West Virginia went up from 0.9% in 2020 and Montana up from 0.8% in 2020¹. These are population estimates without a margin of error, revised with each new vintage.

WashingtonNevadaTexasHawaiiUnited States

Source: Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2005-2019 and 2021-2025. ACS 1-year estimates; no standard 1-year release for 2020. Shaded band: 90% margin of error.

Show the numbers

Year	Washington	Nevada	Texas	Hawaii	United States
2005	6.5% ±0.1	5.7% ±0.1	3.2% ±0.0	41.2% ±0.8	4.3% ±0.0
2006	6.6% ±0.1	5.9% ±0.2	3.3% ±0.0	39.0% ±0.8	4.3% ±0.0
2007	6.6% ±0.1	6.0% ±0.1	3.3% ±0.0	37.8% ±0.6	4.3% ±0.0
2008	6.4% ±0.1	5.9% ±0.1	3.4% ±0.0	37.6% ±0.6	4.4% ±0.0
2009	6.6% ±0.1	6.5% ±0.1	3.5% ±0.0	36.1% ±0.8	4.4% ±0.0
2010	7.1% ±0.1	7.2% ±0.2	3.8% ±0.0	38.0% ±0.7	4.7% ±0.0
2011	7.3% ±0.1	7.1% ±0.2	3.8% ±0.0	37.3% ±0.7	4.8% ±0.0
2012	7.3% ±0.1	7.4% ±0.2	4.0% ±0.0	37.4% ±0.7	4.9% ±0.0
2013	7.6% ±0.1	7.6% ±0.1	4.1% ±0.0	37.0% ±0.7	5.0% ±0.0
2014	7.8% ±0.1	7.7% ±0.2	4.3% ±0.0	36.5% ±0.6	5.2% ±0.0
2015	7.9% ±0.1	7.9% ±0.2	4.5% ±0.0	36.1% ±0.7	5.3% ±0.0
2016	8.1% ±0.1	8.2% ±0.2	4.6% ±0.0	37.0% ±0.7	5.4% ±0.0
2017	8.5% ±0.1	8.3% ±0.2	4.8% ±0.0	37.3% ±0.6	5.5% ±0.0
2018	8.7% ±0.1	8.1% ±0.2	4.9% ±0.0	36.7% ±0.7	5.6% ±0.0
2019	8.9% ±0.1	8.3% ±0.2	4.9% ±0.0	38.1% ±0.8	5.6% ±0.0
2021	9.4% ±0.1	8.4% ±0.2	5.1% ±0.0	36.5% ±0.8	5.7% ±0.0
2022	9.7% ±0.1	8.9% ±0.2	5.4% ±0.0	34.6% ±0.6	5.8% ±0.0
2023	9.9% ±0.1	8.9% ±0.2	5.6% ±0.0	36.1% ±0.6	5.9% ±0.0
2024	10.6% ±0.1	9.3% ±0.2	6.0% ±0.0	35.6% ±0.8	6.2% ±0.0
2025	11.0% ±0.1	9.7% ±0.2	6.3% ±0.1	35.7% ±0.7	6.5% ±0.0

The survey series reaches back to 2005. Washington's non-Hispanic Asian share went up from 6.5% in 2005 to 11.0% (±0.1 percentage points) in 2025, Nevada's up from 5.7% in 2005 and Texas's up from 3.2% in 2005. Nationally it rose from 4.3% to 6.5%. Hawaii's line runs the other way: 35.7% (±0.7 percentage points⁵) in 2025, down from 41.2% in 2005¹¹. The Census Bureau did not publish standard 1-year estimates for 2020, so that year is missing.

A map of two coasts

Only 10 states, counting Illinois, which is barely above the line, have an Asian share above the US figure of 6.9%. Apart from Nevada and Illinois, all of them are on the Pacific or the Atlantic. The median of the 51 values is 3.5%¹, about half the national share, because the largest Asian populations are in the most populous states.

The West holds both ends of the ranking: Hawaii (36.7%) and Montana (1.0%). In the Northeast the range runs from New Jersey (11.6%) to Maine (1.6%). Virginia leads the South at 8.1%, with Maryland next, and Illinois leads the Midwest at 7.0%. Texas (6.7%) and Alaska (6.5%¹) are just below the national share.

Pacific Islanders are a separate group

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander is a race group of its own in federal statistics and is not included in any figure above. Its geography overlaps with the Asian population only in part:

• Native Hawaiian: 91,458 people in Hawaii reported Native Hawaiian alone in 2025, 6.4% (±0.58 percentage points¹³) of residents. California has the second-largest number.
• Samoan and Tongan: the highest Samoan shares are in Alaska and Hawaii (0.91% each in 2020–2024); the highest Tongan share is in Utah (0.33%).
• Marshallese: Arkansas has the most (9,727¹⁴), more than Hawaii.

Definitions and dates

• Who counts as Asian. The Census Bureau, following the 1997 federal standards used for these data, defines Asian as a person with origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent. People choose their own race; Asian residents can also be Hispanic.
• Three national figures. Asian alone, any Hispanic origin: 6.9%¹ (population estimates, July 1, 2025), the ranking. Asian alone or in combination: 8.1%⁴ (survey, 2025). Asian alone, not Hispanic: 6.5%⁵ (survey, 2025). The estimates use modified race categories without "Some other race", so their shares are not directly comparable with the survey's.
• Groups overlap. A person who reports Chinese and Filipino, or Japanese and white, appears in more than one alone-or-in-combination count. Do not add those counts together.
• Counts and ranks. State counts come from the 2025 American Community Survey; ranks by number and the detailed groups use 2020–2024, which covers every state and small group reliably.
• DC and states only. The District of Columbia is ranked with the states, as in Census Bureau tables. This site covers states, not cities or counties. The next state estimates by race are expected in June 2027.

Each state page has its own table of Asian groups, for example Hawaii, New Jersey, California and Minnesota. The race and ethnicity hub compares all groups.