Korean Americans Surpass 1.56 Million

The number of Korean Americans residing in the United States reached 1.56 million as of the end of 2007, Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting the U.S. Census Bureau.

The figure, representing those who came from at least one Korean parent, is the fifth biggest group among 15.2 million Asian Americans, followed by 3.54 million Americans of Chinese descent, 3.05 million Filipinos, 2.77 million Indians and 1.65 Vietnamese. Japanese ranked sixth with 1.22 million.

The statistics, released ahead of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month in May, projected that Asian Americans will constitute 40.6 million or 9 percent of the total U.S. population by 2050, up from the current 5 percent. The total U.S. population is currently 306 million.

Korean is spoken at home by more than 1 million people in the U.S.

Chinese is the second most widely spoken non-English language in the U.S. with 2.5 million people, after Spanish.

Among other languages spoken at home by more than 1 million people are Tagalog (Philippines) and Vietnamese.

California is the home of the largest Asian population with 5 million, followed by New York (1.4 million) and Texas (915,000).

Hawaii, meanwhile, has the highest proportion of Asian population, with 55 percent, with California coming next with 14 percent. New Jersey and Washington followed with 8 percent each.