Profiles In Immigration: Asian Americans

Summary:

• Based on 2015 self reported Census data, single race Asians made up 5.4% of the US population. They were disproportionately concentrated in the West Coast and the North East. The Great Lakes region is also an area where immigrants are disproportionately Asian. Immigrants comprise 69% of the Asian population.
• Asians earned more than non-Asians in the US. Their wage advantage is attributable to their education and choice of occupations. STEM occupations are the jobs in which Asians are most overrepresented relative to their share of the total US population.
• Asian immigrants had an educational advantage relative to both non-Asian immigrants and to US-born non-Asian workers. US-born Asians had an even greater wage and educational advantage.
• A greater percent of Asian immigrants were married (and a lower percentage were divorced) than non-Asians. College educated US-born Asians marry later than Asian immigrants, but they continued to exhibit lower divorce percentages than college educated US-born non-Asians.

Data

This analysis used US American Community Survey data from 2015 provided by IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota.[1] I defined “Asian” using the IPUMS variable “RACASIAN” where “RACNUM” = 1 (meaning the respondent reported no other race).[2] When I use the term “immigrant”, I am referring to anyone not born in the US. Table 1 shows the top 10 “RACED” categories comprising the Asian category I defined.

Table 1: Top 10 Composition of “Asian” Category

Geographic Concentration

The headline map illustrates the percentage Asians (both immigrants and US-born) comprised of state populations in 2015. The areas that Asian immigrants favored relative to other immigrants are illustrated in Figure 1. The Great Lakes region stands out, along with the West Coast and the Northeast.

Figure 1: Asian Immigrants As Percentage Of All Immigrants By State

The top 10 cities by Asian concentration are shown in Table 2. Six of these are in California, while two are in Massachusetts.

Table 2: Top 10 Cities By Asian Percent

Income, Education and Ability

Asians have higher wage income than non-Asians. While their overall share of the population is 5.4%, they comprise 9.8% of the top household income decile and only 4.4% of the bottom household income decile.

For comparability, it is more informative to look at income controlled by whether or not workers are immigrants. Table 3 compares the incomes, education, and “ability” of Asian immigrants relative to non-Asian immigrants. “Ability” is defined as the ratio of a worker’s actual wage relative to the wage that would be expected based on the main drivers of income (which are age, education, occupation and sex; “AEOS”).

While Asian immigrants earned more than non-Asian immigrants, this was due to their greater education and their choice of occupation. Their education advantage is shown in the table (6 = through Grade 12, 7 = 1 year of college, 8 = 2 years of college, 9 = 3 years of college, 11 = 5+ years of college). The Mean Wage/AEOS Wage ratio near 1.0 for both Asian and non-Asian immigrants means both groups were simply earning what would be expected based on their education, occupation and gender.

Table 3: Asian Immigrants vs. Non-Asian Immigrants

	Asian Immigrants			Non-Asian Immigrants
Age Decade	Average Wage	Average Education	Mean Wage/AEOS Wage	Average Wage	Average Education	Mean Wage/AEOS Wage
30s	$48,999	8.9	1.01	$28,646	6.2	1.00
40s	$55,197	8.3	1.00	$34,872	6.1	0.99
50s	$44,367	7.5	0.99	$34,771	6.1	0.99
60s	$23,367	7.0	1.02	$20,624	5.9	1.03

Table 4 shows the even greater wage and education advantage of US-born Asians relative to US-born non-Asians (and relative to non-Asian immigrants shown in Table 3).

Table 4: US-born Asian vs. US-born Non-Asian

	Asian US-born			Non-Asian US-born
Age Decade	Average Wage	Average Education	Mean Wage/AEOS Wage	Average Wage	Average Education	Mean Wage/AEOS Wage
30s	$61,971	9.1	1.08	$38,246	7.7	1.00
40s	$73,281	9.0	1.06	$46,566	7.7	1.00
50s	$58,522	8.6	1.04	$43,322	7.4	1.00
60s	$33,803	8.3	1.12	$23,844	7.5	0.99

US-born Asians do appear to have a modest “ability” advantage relative to US-born non-Asians using the wage/AEOS ratio as a gauge. But the bulk of their wage advantage is driven by better education and by their occupational choices.

Occupational (And Educational) Choices

Table 5 shows the top 15 occupations by number of Asians employed, along with Wage/AEOS ratios, the percent of the occupation comprised of Asian workers, how over or underrepresented Asians are relative to their share of the overall population, and how much of total Asian employment the occupation accounts for. These 15 occupations together represent 36% of Asian employment.

Table 5: Top 15 Occupations By Number of Asians Employed

Occupation	Asian Mean Wage/AEOS Wage	non-Asian Mean Wage/AEOS Wage	Percent Asian	% Asian Relative To Asian Population	% of Asian Employment
Software Developers; Applications and Systems Software	0.99	1.01	32%	5.6	4.3%
Registered Nurses	1.17	0.98	9%	1.5	3.2%
Managers; nec (including Postmasters)	1.01	1.00	7%	1.2	3.1%
Cashiers	1.01	1.00	6%	1.1	2.9%
First-Line Supervisors of Sales Workers	0.93	1.00	6%	1.0	2.6%
Computer Scientists and Systems Analysts/Network systems Analysts/Web Developers	1.06	0.99	15%	2.7	2.5%
Accountants and Auditors	0.94	1.01	11%	2.0	2.4%
Postsecondary Teachers	0.99	1.00	13%	2.3	2.4%
Chefs and Cooks	1.05	1.00	7%	1.2	2.3%
Retail Salespersons	0.90	1.01	5%	0.9	2.1%
Physicians and Surgeons	0.98	1.01	20%	3.5	2.0%
Waiters and Waitresses	1.01	1.00	6%	1.1	1.9%
Personal Appearance Workers; nec	0.95	1.07	57%	10.1	1.8%
Customer Service Representatives	0.94	1.00	4%	0.8	1.4%
Nursing; Psychiatric; and Home Health Aides	1.06	1.00	5%	0.9	1.3%

Table 6 shows the top 15 occupations by highest percentage of Asian workers (these 15 occupations account for 12% of total Asian employment). With the exception of “Personal Appearance Workers; nec” and “Gaming Service Workers”, these are all STEM occupations.

Table 6: Top 15 Occupations By Highest Percentage of Asian Workers

Occupation	Asian Mean Wage/AEOS Wage	non-Asian Mean Wage/AEOS Wage	Percent Asian	% Asian Relative To Asian Population	% of Asian Employment
Personal Appearance Workers; nec	0.95	1.07	57%	10.1	1.8%
Medical Scientists; and Life Scientists; All Other	0.94	1.03	33%	5.7	0.6%
Software Developers; Applications and Systems Software	0.99	1.01	32%	5.6	4.3%
Physical Scientists; nec	0.98	1.01	27%	4.7	0.7%
Computer Hardware Engineers	1.02	0.99	25%	4.5	0.2%
Health Diagnosing and Treating Practitioners; nec	1.06	0.98	23%	4.1	0.0%
Mathematical science occupations; nec	0.94	1.02	22%	3.9	0.1%
Actuaries	0.99	1.00	22%	3.8	0.1%
Physicians and Surgeons	0.98	1.01	20%	3.5	2.0%
Computer Programmers	1.04	0.99	20%	3.5	1.0%
Database Administrators	1.07	0.98	19%	3.4	0.3%
Chemists and Materials Scientists	0.95	1.01	19%	3.3	0.2%
Gaming Services Workers	1.09	0.98	19%	3.3	0.2%
Optometrists	0.84	1.04	18%	3.2	0.1%
Pharmacists	1.08	0.98	18%	3.2	0.6%

The occupational relationships in these two Tables reflect similar patterns in the college degree choices Asians made relative to non-Asians. Fifty eight percent of US-born Asians have a college degree versus 30% of US-born non-Asians (and 51% of Asians immigrants). Table 7 shows the top 15 degree fields chosen by Asians, with comparable share statistics reported for non-Asians.

Table 7: Top 15 College Degree Fields Chosen By Asians Based On 2015 Census Data

Marriage, Divorce and Fertility

Marriage and divorce rates are correlated with income, which in turn is correlated with education. Table 8 compares Asian and non-Asian marriage and divorce rates for both college and noncollege educated respondents.

Table 8: Percent of Asian and non-Asian Married and Divorced In 2015

	Not College Educated				College Educated
Age Decade	Non-Asian % Married	Non-Asian % Divorced	Asian % Married	Asian % Divorced	Non-Asian % Married	Non-Asian % Divorced	Asian % Married	Asian % Divorced
20s	15.6%	2.3%	13.3%	0.9%	23.8%	1.3%	22.5%	0.6%
30s	44.3%	10.5%	57.0%	5.6%	62.7%	6.0%	69.0%	2.7%
40s	53.2%	17.4%	68.7%	9.9%	70.1%	11.9%	78.7%	5.6%
50s	55.7%	20.3%	69.3%	9.8%	68.1%	14.9%	76.5%	7.1%
60s	58.1%	19.2%	64.4%	9.6%	68.1%	15.2%	73.0%	8.0%
70s	53.9%	14.3%	53.6%	7.3%	65.6%	13.1%	67.6%	6.7%

While Asian marriage rates and divorce rates follow a similar non-college/college pattern, those rates indicate greater marital union and marital stability than non-Asian rates. Notably non-College Asian divorce rates are lower than college educated non-Asian divorce rates. Given what we know about the importance of two parent households, marital stability likely improves upward mobility for children of Asian parents.

However, Table 9 shows that college educated US-born Asian marriage rates, family household sizes, and number of own children in the household more closely resemble those of college educated US-born non-Asians. US-born Asians also appear to marry and have children later than US-born non-Asians. But US-born Asian divorce rates continued to be 33% to 50% lower than those of US-born Asians (not shown).

Table 9: College Educated -- Non-Asian US-born, US-born Asian and non US-born Asian Family Characteristics

	College Educated
	Non-Asian US-born			Asian US-born			Asian Not US-born
Age Decade	% Married	Avg. Size of Family in Household	Avg. Own Children In Household	% Married	Avg. Size of Family in Household	Avg. Own Children In Household	% Married	Avg. Size of Family in Household	Avg. Own Children In Household
20s	23.3%	2.2	0.2	9.6%	2.6	0.0	29.9%	2.2	0.1
30s	62.8%	3.0	1.1	50.9%	2.8	0.6	73.8%	3.1	0.9
40s	70.3%	3.3	1.4	69.3%	3.3	1.3	80.1%	3.6	1.4
50s	68.3%	2.5	0.7	67.3%	2.8	0.8	77.8%	3.1	0.9
60s	68.4%	2.0	0.2	65.4%	2.3	0.3	74.1%	2.9	0.5
70s	66.1%	1.9	0.1	62.4%	2.4	0.3	68.2%	2.8	0.4

Conclusion

The Census (and other studies) reveal a definite pattern of Asian immigrants residing in the US who were well educated here or abroad in STEM fields. STEM fields are encouraged by US immigration policy which grants an additional 17 months to remain in the US for foreign students who earn STEM degrees here.

Asian Americans' education levels and disproportionate participation in STEM occupations fully explain their higher wages relative to non-Asians. US-born children of Asian immigrants then benefited from their parents’ financial ability to help them obtain even higher levels of quality education. Relative to non-Asians, they also had the advantage of parents with stable marriages. Consequently, it is not surprising that US-born Asians achieved even higher income levels than their parents.

This data reveals nothing particularly mysterious, and suggest all groups could expect similar outcomes if they emulated the choices historically made by Asian Americans.

[1] IPUMS-USA, University of Minnesota, www.ipums.org. The data is provided freely but is subject to their licensing restrictions.

[2] Using a broader definition that includes anyone who reports any Asian heredity, 6.4% of the US population is Asian and 61% of those were born outside the US.

Transparent and reproducible: All Figures and Tables can be generated using the free, publicly-available R program, the data links in this article and in the R code available in “ProfilesImmigrationAA.r" on github.