Tracking Change Over Time in Atlanta: Asian Population(s) 2000-2023

To close out Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, we share some “hard numbers” below, in five tables, that trace the startlingly rapid growth (over the last near quarter-century), of the foreign-born Asian population on the whole as well as for those born in key countries of origin (India, mainland China, Vietnam, and Korea). For reference, two previous posts this month gave you a chart overview of the population grouping and then map detail of residence by country of origin.

Table 1 below illustrates that, in the 11-county Region, Asian foreign-born population increased from 27% of all foreign-born population in 2000 to 33% in 2023. There is large variation at the county level. In Forsyth, Asians make up 61% of all foreign-born residents in 2023, while in both Douglas and Rockdale those shares are under 15%.

Table 2 that follows focuses on the largest country of origin (in 2023) for Asian foreign-born population: India. Those born in India were 1 of 5 Asian foreign-born persons in the 11-County Region in 2000, but had increased to nearly 1 in 3 by 2023. In Forsyth, the Asian-Indian population increased from 161 in 2000 to over 23,000 by 2023, which was second only to Fulton County across the 11-County region. Indian population more than doubled, between 2010 and 2023, in five of the Region’s counties.

Table 3 below shows trends for persons born in mainland China, the second largest (as of 2023) Asian-foreign born country of origin. Those born in China living in the 11 counties increased by 373% from 2000 to 2023, to total nearly 40,000. Gwinnett has the highest concentrations of this foreign-born population in both 2010 and 2023, followed closely by Fulton in both years. Though the Chinese population in Forsyth is much smaller than the Asian-Indian one, the increase from merely 18 in 2000 to over 3,400 by 2023 is still quite remarkable.

Table 4 below presents the growth of the Vietnamese-born population in the State and 11-County area from 2000 to 2023. The Vietnamese population was the #1 country of origin for Asian-foreign born in 2000, with much migration coming after the end of the Vietnam War in the mid-1970s. But the growth of Indian and Chinese populations was far faster from 2000 to 2023, though Vietnamese population still added 83% over that period. In Clayton, over 2 in 3 of all Asian foreign-born are from Vietnam, compared to about 14% across the region as a whole. Gwinnett, however, has almost 50% of the 11-County Region’s Vietnamese population as of 2023.

Finally, Table 5 that follows tracks historical population trends for residents born in Korea, the fourth largest (as of 2023) Asian-foreign born country of origin. Those living in the ARC Region and born in Korea increased most rapidly between 2000 and 2010, with only slight growth between 2010 and 2023. Gwinnett has more than 50% of the 11-County Region’s Korean-born population as of 2023–and almost three times the number of any other county in the ARC Region– and strikingly, nearly double that of the other 148 counties in the State combined.