Today marks the conclusion of national Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. While this blog has have tracked growth trends for Asian population over time (as well as with a more recent focus on the 2020 Census, we wanted to post up a quick review and reminder  of how much and where (within the region) the growth of this fastest-increasing racial group has been.

As for “how much”, Census data back to 1980 reveals the consistently high rates of growth in the Asian population, nationally, and at the state of Georgia level. In fact, from 1980 to 2000, Georgia’s Asian growth rate was 1st among all states, at over a 400% increase compared 125% for the nation as a whole. Georgia had nearly 145,000 more Asians in 2000 than in 1980. Over the last 20 years, growth rate of the Asian population in Georgia continued (at 175%) to exceed the national rate of increase (93%).

Let’s look closer to home now. Figure 1 below presents county-level change in Asian populations between 2010 and 2020. Forsyth and Gwinnett Counties lead in 2020 share–with nearly 1 in 5 Forsyth 2020 residents self-classifying as Asian. Forsyth and Gwinnett also lead in percentage point share change, as well as percent growth in Asian population. The increase in Asian populationcan be seen at more spatial detail (and also for the longer 1990 to 2020 period) in Figure 2–in the bottom left tile of the animated map. Asian population growth over time has been focused to the north/northeast of the region, spreading out only incrementally to other urban centers  .  Comparing the locational patterns to other race/ ethnic groups is revealing. While the general distribution of the Hispanic population (see top right panel of Figure 3) has been similar, Hispanic population has spread out spatially much more (than Asian) in the 1990 to 2020 period.

Figure 1: County-Level Trends in Asian Populations (Source: US Census Bureau; ARC Research & Analytics)

Figure 2: Population Growth Over Time: 1990-2020 (US Census Bureau; ARC Research & Analytics)

As shown in Figure 3 below, the census tract areas of increasing concentrations of our Asian populations within the last decade are found to the northeast of our region, clustered particularly along I-85 and major arterials parallel to that highway, such as Buford Highway and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.  The tract level data show that Asian shares are increasing faster in portions of this corridor just outside I-285, in Gwinnett County and along GA-400 in North Fulton and Forsyth–as opposed to “closer- in” segments of those two arterials where Asian growth was focused in the 1980-2000 period.

Figure 3: Percentage Point Change in Share of Asian, Non-Hispanic Population, 1990-2020 (US Census Bureau, Data Nexus)