With heavy immigration fueled by U.S. immigration law changes in 1965 and the influx of over 700,000 Indochinese refugees since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Asian Americans grew from 1.4 million in 1970 to 3.5 million, 1.5% of the U.S. population, by the April 1980 census and an estimated 5.1 million, 2.1% of the U.S. total, as of September 30, 1985. Barring major changes in U.S. immigration policy, they could number almost 10 million in 2000. The major Asian American groups are Chinese (21% of the total in 1985), Filipinos (20%), Japanese (15%), Vietnamese (12%), Koreans (11%), and Asian Indians (10%). In 1980, 49% of Asian Americans lived in California or Hawaii, 9% in New York, and 92% lived in metropolitan areas, compared to 75% of the general population. Except for the latest-arrived Vietnamese, the fertility of the six major groups is lower than the white average, labor force participation is generally higher and unemployment lower. In 1980, 35% of adults were college graduates, compared to 17% of white adults, and among the foreign-born, all but Koreans and Vietnamese exceeded the white population in the highest-status occupational category. Per-worker median incomes in 1979 were higher than the white median only for Japanese, Chinese, and Asian Indians, but family median incomes were as high or higher than the white median for all but Vietnamese, because Asian Americans households, especially among recent immigrants, contain more workers than white households. Asian Americans are not homogeneous and some groups still lag behind, particularly"second-wave" Indochinese refugees arriving since 1978, but with their strong family support and dedication to education and work, Asian Americans are likely to assimilate like other immigrant groups before them, especially as more of their groups are comprised of native-born Americans. (Author)