History and Demographics
Laotian immigration to the United States was at its height after the Vietnam War. Refugees began arriving in the U.S. after a Communist government came to power in Laos in 1975 and by 1980, the Laotian population of the U.S. reached 47,683, according to census estimates. These numbers increased dramatically during the 1980s, so that the census estimated that there were 147,375 people by 1990. The group continued to grow, somewhat more slowly, to 167,792 by 2000. By 2008 the population nearly reached 240,532. Included are the Hmong, a mountainous tribe from that country with their own ethnic designation: Hmong Americans.
Most Laotian Americans (includes colonies of the Hmong from Laos) live in the western states of California, Washington, and Oregon. There are also substantial populations in Minnesota, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. Large communities are located in Ohio, Oklahoma, Iowa, Utah, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire, Michigan, Maine, Alabama and Louisiana. There are about over 200,000 ethnic Lao in America. Approximately 8,000 - 11,000 Americans are of mixed Lao and other descent. Ethnic Lao people may identify as both Lao American and Laotian American (see also Hmong American).
Cities or regions with significant Laotian-American populations include the San Francisco Bay area (numbering at about 11,545); the Sacramento Metropolitan Area (9,814); the Seattle metropolitan area (12,190); Minneapolis – Saint Paul (18,031); the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area (10,500); San Diego (7,002); Fresno, California (6,381); Providence, Rhode Island (6,291); Elgin, Illinois (4,000); and the Greater Los Angeles Area (est. at 5,000-8,000); with the rest of Southern California having many Laotian and other Southeast Asian communities.
Smaller Laotian communities can be found at Anchorage, Alaska; Central Florida (principally Orlando); Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Houston, Texas; South Philadelphia; and southeastern Washington state. The population of Laotian Americans in the Pacific Northwest region is roughly 30,000.
Wausau, Wisconsin and Fresno, California each claim the largest Laotian and Hmong-American communities. California also has communities in Banning and Merced in the Inland Empire (California) region; Tulare County, California (esp. Porterville); and Northern California: the areas of Santa Rosa, Chico, Eureka, Redding, and Stockton.)
The majority were estimated to live in the West (95,574), followed by the South (44,471), Midwest (37,820), and Northeast (15,382).
Read more about this topic: Laotian American
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