EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, JUNE 28, 2001 (THURSDAY)
                                               
Public Information Office                                    CB01-111
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Jesse McKinnon/Elizabeth Grieco
301-457-2402

            Nation's Asian and Pacific Islander Population 
                       Profiled by Census Bureau

  In March 2000, 80 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander family
households were maintained by married couples and 42 percent of these
households had incomes of $75,000 or more, according to survey data
released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.

  These data, collected in the March 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS),
should not be confused with Census 2000 results.

  The 21 tables, titled Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the
United States: March 2000 (Update), provide data on age, marital status,
family type and size, education, labor force participation and employment
status, occupation, income and earnings, poverty and tenure (owner/renter).

  Other highlights:

  - Forty-four percent of Asian and Pacific Islanders age 25 and over
    had a bachelor's degree or higher and 86 percent had at least a high
    school diploma in 2000.
  
  - In 1999, Asian and Pacific Islanders had a record-low poverty rate
    of 10.7 percent.

  - There were 2.5 million Asian and Pacific Islander families; 13 percent
    were maintained by women with no spouse present and 7 percent by men
    with no spouse present.

  - Asian and Pacific Islander families tended to be relatively large.
    For example, 23 percent of Asian and Pacific Islander married-couple
    families had five or more members.

  - Fifty-three percent of Asian and Pacific Islander households owned
    their homes.

  Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling
error. The March 2000 CPS uses the 1990 census as the base for its sample.