White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Launches Data.gov/AAPI

The White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI), in partnership with Data.gov , has launched Data.gov/AAPI , the most comprehensive hub of government data on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). The goal of this new resource is to help policymakers and the public understand and address disparities in socioeconomic status, educational attainment, health, and other areas of importance to the AAPI community.

“The launch of Data.gov/AAPI marks an important milestone for better understanding and responding to the complex needs of AAPIs, now the fastest growing racial group in the country,” says WHIAAPI Executive Director Kiran Ahuja.

When President Obama reestablished WHIAAPI under Executive Order 13515 in October 2009, he detailed the need to foster evidence-based research, data collection, and analysis on AAPI populations and subpopulations.

Data.gov/AAPI reveals stories about the AAPI community that are not widely told. For example:

 Asian American veterans are among the oldest in age. Explore the data.

 In the first year of college, Asian American and black students have the highest enrollment rates in remedial education courses. Explore the data.

 Of the immigrant orphans adopted by United States citizens, nearly half are of Asian descent. Explore the data.

 Pacific Islanders have among the highest unemployment rates of all racial and ethnic groups. Explore the data.

 The AAPI community is expected to more than double to over 47 million by 2060. Explore the data.

Data.gov/AAPI features approximately 2,000 datasets and reports from nearly 50 federal, state, county, and city sources pertaining to the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community. These data have been categorized and tagged according to a wide variety of themes, designed to give researchers easy access to disaggregated data from the government.

Says Ahuja, “We hope that this effort propels new research and analysis to more clearly define the needs of AAPI subgroups and create more effective policies and programs to better serve the community in the long term.”