Detailed tabulations are now available which provide demographic characteristics on the social and economic status of the civilian noninstitutional Asian and Pacific Islander population in the United States, based on the March 1997 Current Population Survey.  These tables provide information such as:

• In 1997 the Asian and Pacific Islander population was estimated at 10.1 million and represented 3.9 percent of the total population
• There were 2.3 million Asian and Pacific Islander families in 1997; of these, 79 percent were married-couple families; of the remaining 21 percent, 13 percent were families maintained by women with no spouse present, and 8 percent were families maintained by men with no spouse present.
• Fifty-six percent of all households maintained by an Asian or Pacific Islander householder had 3 or more persons in them in 1997.
• In 1997, 82 percent of all Asian and Pacific Islander individuals 25 years or older and over had at least a high school education; about 42 percent had at least a bachelor’s degree.
• In 1996, the median earnings of Asian and Pacific Islander women and men working year-round, full-time were $25,560 and $34,450, respectively, for a female-to-male earnings ratio of 0.74.
• Asian and Pacific Islander families had a real median income of $49,100 in 1996.
• About 15 percent of all Asian and Pacific Islanders had income below the poverty level in 1996.