Not only have they overtaken the Filipinos; they are well ahead when it comes to income levels and the ability to speak English very well.

In 2000, the Census ranked Asian Indians as the third largest Asian American group after Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans. However, the ACS 2005 projections said Asian Indian population growth has continued to outpace that for all other major Asian groups since 2000, with a 34% growth rate during the first four years of this decade alone.

An Asian Indian group said that based on ACS projections, Asian Indians already number more than 2.32 million, and have now-for the first time- slightly eclipsed the Filipino American population to become the second largest Asian group in the United States after the Chinese Americans.

In contrast, the Filipino growth during the five-year period was 22 percent, resulting in a total of 2.28 million. But other estimates put the total Filipino American population at over 2.3 million.

The survey said immigrants constitute about 12.4 percent of the nation’s population, up from 11.2 percent in 2000, according to estimates made by the bureau of census. That represents about 4.9 million additional immigrants in the past four years, for a total of 35.7 million.

American Indians also beat Filipinos and other Asian groups in “speaking English very well.” While 79.8 percent of American Indians spoke English very well, only 67 percent of Filipinos can do so.

It said Hawaii topped the states with a big Asian American population, reaching 42 per cent of the total population by 2005. This was followed by California with 12.4 percent, New Jersey, 7.3 percent, New York 6.7 percent, Washington state 6.6 percent, Nevada, 5.8 percent, Maryland 4.7 percent, Massachusetts 4.7 percent and Virginia with 4.5 percent.

The ACS said that the southern region experienced a big increase in Asian American populations since 2000 with 31 percent, the Midwest 24 percent, the northeast 23 percent and the west 19 percent.

The states with the top five Asian American population growth during the last four years are North Dakota, 63 per cent, Nevada, 55 percent, New Hampshire, 48 per cent, Arizona 42 percent and Florida 40 percent.

The bureau’s American Community Survey also showed that out of the 7,332,605 total population of Virginia, 342,239 are Asian Americans; in Washington DC, out of the total 515,118 population, 15,566 are Asians In Maryland, the Asian American population increased by 4.7 percent from 2000 to 2005.

 The rise in the immigrant population since 2000 seems to indicate that the blazing pace of immigration seen throughout the 1990s has continued into the first half of this decade, ACS said.

And along with the increase in the overall number of immigrants, the survey found an increase in the numbers who are not U.S. citizens — an estimated 2.4 million more since 2000. The survey did not try to distinguish between noncitizens in the country legally.

The number of immigrants living in American households rose 16 percent over the last five years, fueled largely by recent arrivals from Mexico.

And increasingly, immigrants are bypassing the traditional gateway states like California and New York and settling directly in parts of the country that until recently saw little immigrant activity — regions like the Upper Midwest, New England and the Rocky Mountain states.

The six states with the largest numbers of immigrants are in California, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Illinois. Immigrants, mostly Latinos, have gr5own in states like Georgia and North Carolina because of the availability of jobs. Indiana saw a 34 percent increase in the number of immigrants; South Dakota saw a 44 percent rise; Delaware 32 percent; Missouri 31 percent; Colorado 28 percent; New Hampshire 26 percent.

What will increasingly rile the anti-immigrant groups is a statement by Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, who said this was “a continuation of the Mexicanization of U.S. Immigration."

More of America’s immigrants, legal or not, come from Mexico than any other country, an estimated 27.5 million in 2005, compared to 10.4 million in 2000.

Conversely, the percentage of immigrants who were born in European countries has dropped sharply — 29.4 percent in the last five years, demographers say, because immigrants who came to the United States in the mid-20th century are now dying.

“The American Community Survey provides us with an invaluable annual snapshot of the Asian American population profile," said Saul Gitlin, Executive Vice President -Strategic Services, Kang & Lee Advertising.

“It is an important ‘bible’ for companies active in the Asian American market in that it allows us to fine-tune our understanding of key market demographics beyond those in Census 2000, as well as to uncover Asian population trends that may accelerate in the future, and which will have implications for how marketers plan and execute their Asian multicultural programs."

Although ACS does not offer the depth of Asian population statistics available in the full decennial Census, it does provide key Asian population projections for the nation, by region, and down to the state and county levels. Asian highlights from ACS 2005 include:

- Mid-decade, the total Asian population of the United States has grown to 12.4 million, a 23% increase over the  Census 2000 benchmark.

- The three fastest growing Asian populations are, in rank order, Asian Indians, Vietnamese, and Filipinos.