Asian Segment of U.S. Population Growing Fastest

WASHINGTON — Bolstered by waves of Indochinese war refugees, Asians are the fastest-growing segment of America’s population and could total nearly 10 million by the year 2000, according to a study released today.

By the turn of the century, Asian-Americans will compose “almost 4% of the U.S. population, up from 1.5% in 1980,” the projection by the independent Population Reference Bureau said.

The agency said that between 1970 and 1980, when the total U.S. population rose only 11%, the Asian-American population soared 141%.

The study estimated that the number of Asians has grown from the 3.5 million counted in 1980 to 5.1 million today, a gain of nearly 50% that “reaffirms Asian-Americans’ status as currently the U.S.’s fastest-growing minority.”