Latest U.S. Census Bureau data show:

• 10.4 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) live in the United States and U.S.-associated Pacific Island jurisdictions, comprising approximately 4 percent of the total U.S. population;
• AAPIs are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, and are expected to reach 10 percent of the population by the year 2050.
• 40 percent of AAPIs do not speak English fluently.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are often viewed as a model minority with few health or social problems, however emerging data on AAPIs show significant disparities and barriers to health care and social service access.

• The poverty rate of AAPI families (14 percent) is higher than that of non-Hispanic White families (8 percent).
• AAPIs lack health insurance at a higher rate than the total U.S. population, with Korean Americans being the most likely racial/ethnic group to be uninsured. An estimated 2 million AAPIs are uninsured.
• AAPIs face tremendous cultural and linguistic barriers to health and social services.
• AAPIs suffer disproportionately high rates of hepatitis B, diabetes, cancer and tuberculosis.
• Infant mortality rates in the U.S.-associated Pacific Island jurisdictions exceed the U.S. rate, in cases more than twice as much.
• Less than 6 percent of Tongans, Cambodians, Laotians and Hmongs have completed college; the high school graduation rate for Hmongs is 31 percent.