According to U.S. census statistics, the Asian American population in 2000 was 10.2 million, roughly 3.6 percent of the population. One third live in the state of California.

Three of four Indian Americans were born outside the United States, and as 63.9 percent of them have a bachelor's degree, they are highly educated relative to other Asian American groups.

Their English proficiency levels are similar to those of Filipino Americans, while the average family income of Indian Americans as of 1999 was US$70,708 (W74.9 million), slightly lower than the US$70,849 earned by Japanese Americans, but only 41.9 percent of Japanese Americans held a bachelor's degree.

Korean Americans had an average family income of only US$47,624. This was less than Pakistanis at US$50,189, and roughly similar to that of Vietnamese Americans at US$47,103. Almost 44 percent of Korean Americans held a bachelor's degree of more, which fell fractionally below the Asian American average of 44.1 percent.

The average family income of Asian Americans was US$59,324, higher than the U.S. national average of US$50,046.

Among Asian Americans, Cambodians, Laotians and Hmongs (an ethnic minority group that originate from the Laotian mountain ranges) are suffering from the most serious poverty and language barriers. Most of these people came to the United States to escape from the Vietnam War or Khmer Rouge rule.

On the other hand, most Indian Americans are either immigrants who came to the United States voluntarily to find higher levels of education or employment, or to seek out relatives, so analysis indicates that they enjoy relatively high incomes and levels of education.

The Indian American population is 1.6 million, the third largest Asian American group behind Chinese and Filipino Americans.

(Yoon Hee-young, hyyoon@chosun.com )