Asian Market

As a relatively small community within the United States, Asian Americans garner less emphasis in the corporate sector than African Americans or Hispanics. However, data show that despite its size, the Asian-American community’s impact on consumer spending is significant.

Presently, Asian Americans—a highly diverse community whose origins can be traced to Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, among other countries— represent 5% of the U.S. population, and their numbers are rising fast. Between 1990 and 2000, the increase in the Asian-American populations was nearly four times that of the country as a whole. Current projections estimate that the population will top 40 million by the year 2050.

Asian Americans tend to be well educated and affluent, possessing the highest per average household income of any minority group in the country. This is not to suggest that there aren’t economic disparities within the population. Data show that roughly 20% of Asian-American households earn $100,00 per year or more, and the average income of married Asian-American couples is more than $80,000 per year. At the same time, more than 1.3 million Asian Americans live below the poverty line and nearly 17% of families in the community have annual household incomes of less than $25,000.

Nonetheless, projections for 2009 show that Asian American buying power will top $500 billion, an increase of nearly 50% from 2006.