“Asian population surging in Bay Area”

MercuryNews.com | 09/30/2006 | Asian population surging in Bay Area
After a decade of strong growth during the 1990s in Silicon Valley, Indians and mainland Chinese each grew by about 30,000 in Santa Clara County from 2000 to 2005, a growth rate of about 40 percent for Indians and 30 percent for mainland Chinese. For those groups, Alameda County recorded similar percentage gains.

According to the new data:

• The combined Indian and mainland Chinese population grew by about 100,000 people in Santa Clara and Alameda counties since 2000, totaling about 400,000, and making them the two fastest-growing populations in the area.

• Growth among Vietnamese and Taiwanese in Santa Clara County has leveled off.

• Indians have nearly replaced Vietnamese as the valley’s second-largest Asian group, behind mainland Chinese.

• More people of Indian descent live in Santa Clara County than in Los Angeles or Manhattan. In the United States, the county’s Indian population now trails only that of Queens, N.Y.

• Nearly as many mainland Chinese are now in Santa Clara County as in San Francisco.

The numbers do not include people living in group quarters, such as college dormitories and prisons.

[snip]

Nor is the growth new: Milpitas, Cupertino and Fremont ranked among the 15 most demographically transformed cities in California from 1980 to 2000 with communities changing from mostly white to places where Asians equal or outnumber whites, said demographer Hans Johnson of the Public Policy Institute of California.

This shouldn’t be surprising if you just drive around a little. It’s definitely something that’s different compared to living in NY and Baltimore.