How Los Angeles County became home to the biggest AAPI communities in the country

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by ThatDarnSacramentan

Not to sidetrack the main conversation, but what jumped out to me seeing that map regarding California specifically is, what's happening up in Trinity County? I recognize the map is percentages and not raw numbers, but still, it's in the same percentage bracket as the Portland metro and Vegas.

It's the herb, and I think that it might be Hmong people as they made the news previously by feuding with local authorities.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by JManc

I am willing to bet LA County has the biggest furry population in the US as well.

Well, if it has a high amount of Asians, I'm betting that it has more smooth people than furry.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

More than likely most of the African American population still remain in the LA Metro and just moved into neighboring San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. I’ll bet you see in the stats the AA population has increased in those areas.

That's plausible. California's overall count of Black hasn't decreased, so it's possible there was just some flight to the Inland Empire.

There might also be a higher tendency for interracial mixing in Los Angeles County, so although there might be as many, or more, people with African ancestry, they could be no longer identifying as Black due to other options on the census form.

[veep]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Which speaks to the relative dearth of black people out west compared to the eastern half of the nation.

It's the only macro-demo that LA county doesn't completely own in terms of raw #s.

Might be better to use a different word than "own" in this particular context.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Well, if it has a high amount of Asians, I'm betting that it has more smooth people than furry.

But Asians are in to cosplay and anime and that's kind of furry-adjacent

[Trae]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

That's plausible. California's overall count of Black hasn't decreased, so it's possible there was just some flight to the Inland Empire.

There might also be a higher tendency for interracial mixing in Los Angeles County, so although there might be as many, or more, people with African ancestry, they could be no longer identifying as Black due to other options on the census form.

You see small increases in the Black population basically all over the suburban fringes of metro LA, even Orange County. There was heavy bleeding from LA County in the 2010s that has finally slowed down. But you're 100% right on the mixed couples. You see that a lot in places like South Orange County. Now the most common mixes here are White/Asian or White/Latino, but you see many Black/White or Latino couples down here now. There is a term for them a friend told us the other day..."ambiguous Browns".

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by Trae

You see small increases in the Black population basically all over the suburban fringes of metro LA, even Orange County. There was heavy bleeding from LA County in the 2010s that has finally slowed down. But you're 100% right on the mixed couples. You see that a lot in places like South Orange County. Now the most common mixes here are White/Asian or White/Latino, but you see many Black/White or Latino couples down here now. There is a term for them a friend told us the other day..."ambiguous Browns".

I’m probably one of those people your friend is referring to. Although I’m not all that brown, I’m really pale looking even compared to other light skinned black people. When I tell people I’m black I get strange looks (lol)

My dad is Latino, born in New Mexico but raised in LA, and my mom is black born in Louisiana. This morning on my way into the office building where I work, this older gentleman smiled and spoke to me in a foreign language. I don’t know exactly what language and it wasn’t Spanish. The man looked like he could be Armenian, but I suspect he thought I was the same as him. This happens all the time, I remember being mistaken for being Turkish when I visited Amsterdam, and once this guy came up to me swore I was from Beirut.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Percentage-wise, sure.

I wouldn't be surprised if LA County were split into 3-4 smaller counties, that there would be some ie San Gabriel Valley that would be near the top percentage wise. I would venture that if SGV were its own county, it'd probably be >50% Asian, similar to some of the counties in Hawaii.

I'd be curious to see what the percentages are like in the SFV and South Bay would be as well.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by homebucket

I wouldn't be surprised if LA County were split into 3-4 smaller counties, that there would be some ie San Gabriel Valley that would be near the top percentage wise. I would venture that if SGV were its own county, it'd probably be >50% Asian, similar to some of the counties in Hawaii.

Naah. According to the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership, as of 2023, the SGV has 1,831,083 people, and the breakdown is:

White (non-hispanic) 17.73%
Black (non-hispanic) 3.5%
American Indian (non-hispanic) 0.14%
Asian (non-hispanic) 26.17%
Pacific Islander (non-hispanic) 0.07%
Other (non-hispanic) 0.31%
Multirace (non-hispanic) 1.59%
Hispanic 50.5%

The San Gabriel Valley is huge geographically. Depending on which part of it you're in, you see different kinds of people... some areas more mixed than others, some areas seeming like there's one dominant ethnicity/race than others.

[homebucket]

^ Interesting, I thought it would’ve been a lot more. When I’m in that Alhambra/MP/SG triangle or Walnut/RH/DB area it feels like Cupertino on steroids.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Because of the massive population of the county. It's the most populous county in the nation, at 9.6 million, which is more than 40 states. The next most-populated county in the US is Cook County in Illinois, at just over half of Los Angeles County's population, at around 5 million. So the law of numbers tells us Los Angeles County has the greatest chance of having the highest population of any race or ethnicity.

And the law of numbers would tell us that Cook County has the greatest chance of having the second-highest population of Asians and Latinos, but it doesn't. That's because settlement patterns are not standardized.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County indeed has a larger population than 40 states. But being part of a larger metropolitan agglomeration rather than a state makes a difference. For example, many (perhaps most) of the larger AAPI subgroups have achieved sufficient critical mass to establish at least one recognized foothold--Koreatown, Chinatown, Thai Town, Little Tokyo, Little Cambodia, Historic Filipinotown, Little Saigon, etc. People from all around the metro can easily visit these enclaves, which enhances the economic, cultural, and political power of the neighborhoods and ethnic/racial groups.

Anyway, since we're discussing this article in this thread, some interesting highlights include:

• Orange County is home to the largest community of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam.
  
• Southern California is home to the largest number of Thai people outside of Thailand and contains the only officially recognized Thai Town established in the United States.
  
• Long Beach is home to the largest Cambodian community outside of Cambodia.
  
• 721,000 Filipinos live in Southern California.
  
• The biggest Chamorro community (native to Melanesia) in the U.S. lives in San Diego County, with 9,000 people reporting Chamorro ancestry.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by homebucket

^ Interesting, I thought it would’ve been a lot more. When I’m in that Alhambra/MP/SG triangle or Walnut/RH/DB area it feels like Cupertino on steroids.

Between those two clusters it's majority Hispanic, and majority white in the foothills.

https://www.justicemap.org/index.php

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Between those two clusters it's majority Hispanic, and majority white in the foothills.

https://www.justicemap.org/index.php

Yes.

Thanks for that link to the map; here is where I live in South Pasadena:


Where I live is in a plurality white area, and walking around my immediate neighborhood, yes, you do see whites... but you also see other races/ethnicities, but whites do seem to dominate. And across the borders to Alhambra and San Marino, it becomes quite Asian.

And in the foothills, here's Altadena, a traditionally African-American and white area:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7f62f581_h.jpg

It's obvious when you go through Altadena now, that many Hispanics have moved in, and there are fewer African-Americans.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by craigs

And the law of numbers would tell us that Cook County has the greatest chance of having the second-highest population of Asians and Latinos, but it doesn't. That's because settlement patterns are not standardized.

It's also because Cook County is only a little bit bigger than #3 Harris County.

Whereas LA County is an extreme outlier in terms of population, being roughly TWICE the size of #2 Cook County.

It really shouldn't surprise anyone that it leads most categories in raw numbers. It's an outsized population juggernaut.

[FromSD]

Originally Posted by Crawford

And I had no idea Cerritos was LA County. It feels very Northern OC, to me. Culturally, it seems to better fit Northern OC. Those middle class Northern OC Brady Bunch areas totally vacated by whites, and very desirable to Asians.

Cerritos was comprised of dairy farms which remained in place long after adjoining areas in Southeast LA County had been given over to subdivisions. So most Cerritos neighborhoods are at least a couple decades newer than places like Lakewood, Bellflower or the eastern (more suburban) side of Long Beach. In Cerritos the homes are larger and often two stories, in contrast to the single story ranch/bungalow neighborhoods in adjoining cities. That also explains why household incomes in Cerritos are a bit higher than the LA County average.

[bilbao58]

A smallish percentage of a huge number of people is still a lot more than a larger percentage of a much smaller population. There’s a lot to be said for sheer numbers.

[veep]

Pretty sure the 5 largest Bay Area counties have a larger combined AAPI population than LA County despite a total population of about 6 million compared to LA County's 10 million.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by veep

Pretty sure the 5 largest Bay Area counties have a larger combined AAPI population than LA County despite a total population of about 6 million compared to LA County's 10 million.

Perhaps, but considering the fact that Orange is the Southland county with the highest percentage of AAPI, I think a better (and more consistent) comparison would be by MSA or CSA. That would also remove the issue of Los Angeles County being an outlier.

Edit: The Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA had 2,610,255 AAPI in 2020.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by craigs

That's because settlement patterns are not standardized.

One of the clearest examples of that phenomenon is in the Midwest/rustbelt. for whatever reason, latino immigrants to the region have HIGHLY concentrated themselves in chicagoland.

as the largest MSA in the region, by far, one would expect Chicago to lead in raw numbers, but it's way more than just leading; there are more latinos in chicagoland than there are in the other 13 midwest/rustbelt 1M+ MSAs combined!


MSA latino population:

chicago: 2,239,376 (23.3%)


The rest of the Midwest/Rustbelt 1M+ MSAs:

milwaukee: 182,777 (11.6%)
kansas city: 229,233 (10.5%)
grand rapids: 110,671 (10.2%)
indianapolis: 177,787 (8.4%)
rochetser: 88,854 (8.1%)
minneapolis: 242,621 (6.8%)
cleveland: 133,862 (6.4%)
buffalo: 67,476 (5.8%)
columbus: 110,967 (5.2%)
detroit: 219,953 (5.0%)
cincinnati: 95,073 (4.2%)
st. louis: 106,269 (3.8%)
pittsburgh: 52,920 (2.2%)

total: 1,818,463 (6.3%)



And the imbalance is likely still growing, with Chicago taking in 41,000 asylum-seeking migrants last year alone.

[Crawford]

What's the biggest AAPI population in raw numbers?

Has to be NY, LA or SF/SJ. By % no doubt SF/SJ, and I'm guessing by raw numbers maybe LA, then NY, then SF, all pretty close? And Toronto would be in the mix too, I think?