The number of Asian-Americans households earning over $200,000 jumped a staggering 181.5%

The number of Asian-Americans households earning over $200,000 jumped a staggering 181.5% between 2000 and 2008, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data conducted by Stephen R. Higley Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Urban Geography at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. Despite their much smaller share of the U.S. population, the 312,228 Asian American households in this top income segment outnumber the 152,314 African American and 198,569 Latino HHs.

That explosion of wealthy Asian Americans shows up in their high concentrations in America’s richest neighborhoods. While Asian Americans are only 4.7% of America’s cities and towns, in the high-income neighborhoods their percentages were multiples of that. In Saratoga, California — America’s richest with a median income of $151,734 — 37.3% of households were Asian American. Other top-income neighborhoods in California saw similar concentrations, ranging from 57.1% in Cupertino to 24.9% in Palo Alto, 27.4% in Rancho Palos Verdes, 13.9% in Yorba Linda and 11.7% in Calabasas.

The Asian American concentration in high-end neithborhoods was almost as pronounced on the East Coast. Ritzy North Potomac, MD boasted 32.5%, West Windsor Township, NJ had 30.2%, North Hempstead, NY had 13% and McLean, VA had 12.6%. Given the explosive rate of growth of AA in high-end neighborhoods, the concentrations should be considerably bigger by the time the 2010 Census is released.

What makes their high wealth rate remarkable is that it far surpasses even the robust growth rate of the Asian American population. Between 2000 and 2008 the AA population grew 34.6% from 10.1 mil. to 13.5 mil. By comparison the overall U.S. population grew only 8%. The White population grew only 2.6%. At 33.2% even the remarkable Latino growth rate was slightly lower than the Asian American rate.

Asian Americans also led the nation in median household incomes with $69,047 compared with $52,175 for the U.S. as a whole, $56,648 for whites, $41,630 for Latinos and $35,086 for blacks.

What a great advertising market!

For more detailed information, go to www.Higley1000.com for Prof. Higley’s article.