EMBARGOED UNTIL: 10 A.M. EST, DECEMBER 9, 1997 (TUESDAY) Public Information Office CB97-201 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-4067 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Claudette Bennett 301-457-2402 Married Couples Make Up Large Share of Asian and Pacific Islander Families, Census Bureau Reports About 80 percent of the 2.1 million Asian and Pacific Islander families in the United States in 1996 consisted of married couples, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said today. The package of tables, The Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the United States: March 1996 (Update), includes these highlights: - The Asian and Pacific Islander population was estimated at 9.6 million persons in 1996 and represented 3.7 percent of the total population. - Fifty-nine percent of all households maintained by Asian and Pacific Islanders had three or more persons in them in 1996. - About 42 percent of the country's Asian and Pacific Islanders 25 years of age and older had at least a bachelor's degree in 1996 and 83 percent had at least a high school education. The data were collected in the March 1996 Current Population Survey. The electronic versions of the tables are available on the Internet at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/race/api96.html. Paper copies (P20-503) are available from the Census Bureau's Public Information Office. As with all surveys, data are subject to sampling and other sources of error.-X-The Census Bureau pre-eminent collector and provider of timely, relevant, and quality data about the people and economy of the United States. In more than 100 surveys annually and 20 censuses a decade, evolving from the first census in 1790, the Census Bureau provides official information about America's people, businesses, industries and institutions.
