JAPANESE AMERICANS IN NEW YORK CITY EARNED MORE AND HAD MORE
EDUCATION BUT SPOKE LESS ENGLISH AND HAD LOWER CITIZENSHIP RATES
THAN CITY�S GENERAL POPULATION IN 2000, CENSUS ANALYSIS SHOWS


Also According to Asian American Federation�s Census Profile,
Japanese Americans Were Seventh-Largest Asian American Group in New York City
And New York Metropolitan Area Had Fourth-Largest Japanese American Metro Population in 2000

Community Briefing Will Be Held Friday, Sept. 10 at Japan Society

NEW YORK � Japanese Americans in New York City tended to have higher incomes and education levels but lower English ability and citizenship rates than city residents overall in 2000, according to a census-based profile released today by the Asian American Federation of New York and scheduled for discussion at a community briefing tomorrow night. The profile also cites data showing that in 2000, Japanese Americans were the city�s seventh-largest Asian American group and the New York metropolitan area had the fourth-largest Japanese population in a U.S. metropolitan region. The Asian American Federation, a nonprofit leadership organization, published the profile as one of a series of demographic portraits prepared by its Census Information Center (CIC) � a source of census data and analysis, affiliated with the U.S. Census Bureau � to expand awareness of Asian American populations in the New York metropolitan area. The Japanese American profile is available at www.aafny.org. The Federation will discuss and take questions on the profile at a briefing tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m. at Japan Society, 333 E. 47th St. (between First and Second avenues). The program will be co-sponsored by the Asia Society [www.asiasociety.org]; Give2Asia [www.give2asia.org]; The Japanese American Association of New York [www.jaany.org]; the Japanese American Citizens League [www.jacl.org]; the Japanese American National Museum [www.janm.org]; Japanese American Social Services, Inc. [www.jassi.org]; and Japan Society [www.japansociety.org]. The event is open to the media and the general public. Refreshments will be served. �The briefing will provide a forum for examining Japanese American population traits, their implications for Japanese New Yorkers� quality of life, and ways to address community needs,� said Cao K. O, executive director of the Asian American Federation. �Issues to consider include how to help more Japanese Americans improve their grasp of English and how to make it easier for Japanese immigrants to become U.S. citizens.� Among key census facts in the profile (referring to 2000 census data unless stated otherwise):

• From 1990 to 2000, the number of Japanese Americans in New York City grew from 16,828 to 26,419, or 57 percent � compared with 9 percent for the city�s total population and 71 percent for all Asian American New Yorkers.
• Japanese Americans constituted 3 percent of New York City�s Asian American population in 2000 � as in 1990, when Japanese also were the seventh-largest Asian group in New York City.
• In 2000, the New York metropolitan area�s Japanese Americans numbered 59,456 � ranking fourth after Japanese populations in the Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco metropolitan regions.
• The majority (61 percent, or 16,116) of New York City�s Japanese Americans lived in Manhattan, followed by Queens (23 percent, or 5,957); Brooklyn (12 percent, or 3,066); the Bronx (3 percent, or 873); and Staten Island (2 percent, or 407). This distribution diverged from the concentration in Queens of many other Asian American groups and Asian New Yorkers overall.
• By all Census 2000 income measures, Japanese New Yorkers earned more than city residents as a whole. Japanese in New York City had a median household income of $40,773, exceeding $38,293 for the total city population, and a median family income of $64,531, surpassing $41,887 for the entire city. Japanese per capita income of $37,254 was about two-thirds greater than $22,402 city-wide.
• More than 1 in 5 (22 percent, or 5,676) of all Japanese Americans in New York City lived below the poverty line � slightly exceeding the city-wide general poverty rate of 21 percent. However, young and elderly Japanese residents experienced lower poverty levels than their city-wide counterparts. Poverty rates were 12 percent for Japanese children, contrasted with 30 percent for all city children, and 8 percent for Japanese senior citizens, less than half the 18 percent rate for all elderly New Yorkers.
• The preponderance (83 percent, or 16,673) of Japanese American adults in New York City had post-secondary education � far exceeding about half (48 percent) of all adult New Yorkers. Moreover, only 5 percent (911) of the city�s Japanese adults had not graduated from high school, while 28 percent of adults city-wide lacked high school diplomas.
• Japanese American adults in New York City were almost twice as likely to have �Limited English Proficiency� as city adults overall. This classification (for those speaking English �well,� �not well� or �not at all�) applied to 44 percent (10,827) of all adult Japanese New Yorkers � as opposed to 24 percent of all adults in the city.
• Nearly three-quarters (73 percent, or 19,014) of Japanese New Yorkers were foreign-born � more than double the percentage of immigrants in the entire city population (36 percent). The majority of Japanese immigrants in New York City had moved to the United States recently (in the last 20 years). As of the 2000 census, only 10 percent of all Japanese immigrants and 5 percent of recent Japanese immigrants in the city were naturalized U.S. citizens � compared with 45 percent of all immigrant New Yorkers and 49 percent of all recent immigrants in the city.
• The average number of people in a Japanese American household in New York City was 1.69 � considerably below the city-wide average of 2.59.
• Some 18 percent of Japanese Americans in New York City owned their homes, while the city-wide home-ownership rate was 30 percent.
• Of all Japanese Americans in New York City, 58 percent were female and 42 percent were male, whereas the city�s overall Asian American population had an even gender division.