Filipino Americans

by Ying Ying Meng

Population

  • In 1997, the Philippines and China (including Hong Kong) were the leading countries of origin after Mexico for foreign-born residents in the United States. Each contributed 1.1 million people. 1
  • From the 1990 census to July 1997, the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) population in San Mateo County has increased at the fastest rate, 32% (Table 1). The major increase in the API population came from migration (62%).2

Table 1. Race/Ethnic Population Estimates:
Components of Change for San Mateo County, April 1990 to July 1997

  Total White Black Native American API Hispanic
April 1990 649,623 393,088 34,000 2,349 105,559 114,627
July 1997 711,695 386,027 34,035 2,750 139,207 149,676
Change since 1990 62,072 -7,061 35 401 33,648 35,049
Percent change 9.6% -1.8% 0.1% 17.1% 31.9% 30.6%

Source: State of California, Department of Finance, Race/Ethnic Population Estimates: Components of Change for California Counties, April 1990 to July 1997. Sacramento, Calif., June 1999.

  • According to 1990 census data, the majority of the population in Daly City of San Mateo County, California, was API. The API population (44%) was larger than the white population (40%) (Figure 1). 3

Figure 1

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1992, 112th edition. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1992.

  • Among the API populations in Daly City, Filipinos were the largest subgroup; 27%, or 24,950, of the total population in Daly City in 1990 were Filipinos (Figure 1). 4

  • The total Filipino population in the United States was 1,406,770, or 19.3% of the API population in 1990. San Francisco and Daly City together had 9.2% of the California Filipino population, and 4.8% of the U.S. Filipino population. 5

  • Between 1980 and 1990, the Filipino population grew 104.2% in California. 6

  • According to 1990 census data, 64.4% of the Filipinos in the United States were foreign born. 7

  • Based on the San Francisco South of Market Family Resources Survey in 1996, Filipinos composed the largest ethnic group, 61% in the South of Market area (zip code 94103); whites were the second largest at 24%. Correspondingly, 57% of the population spoke Tagalog. 8

Economic Status

  • Per capita income of API population ($13,809) in 1989 in Daly City was lower than that of whites ($16,488) and of blacks ($15,373). 9

  • Census data for 1990 showed that 5.2% Filipino families lived below poverty level in the United States, compared with 10% of the overall. 10

  • Among legal permanent residents, 1.1% of Filipinos under 65 and 34.3% of Filipinos over 65 received public assistance in 1990. 11

Education

  • In the Jefferson Union High School District of Daly City, 29% of the enrolled students in 1997–98 were Filipinos, while 2.5% of the teachers were Filipinos. 12

  • The four-year school dropout rate among Filipino students was 4.7% in the Jefferson Union High School District of Daly City, which was higher than the other Asian students (0.7%), but lower than the overall rate (6%).13

  • In 1990, 83% of Filipinos 25 years old and older were at least high school graduates; the national rate was 75%.14

  • As of 1990, 83% of Daly City’s API population 25 years and older were at least high school graduates. 15

Health

  • A study of insurance rates among California’s APIs during 1996–97 indicated that Filipinos were more likely to be uninsured (20%) than non-Latino whites (15%) because few of them had privately purchased insurance and Medi-Cal (Medicaid in California). 16

  • The leading causes of death of APIs and Filipinos were different from those of the total population and of whites in seven selected states (Table 2).

Table 2. Five Leading Causes of Death by Rank in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Washington, 1992

Cause of Death
Age Range 25–44 years		 All Races White All APIs Filipino
HIV infection 1st 1st 5th 4th
Accidents 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd
Cancers 3rd 3 rd 1st 1st
Heart disease 4th 4th 3 rd 3 rd
Homicide & legal intervention 5th   5th  
Suicide   5th 4th 5th

Source: D. L. Hoyert, H. C. Kung, "Asian or Pacific Islander Mortality, Selected States, 1992," Monthly Vital Statistics Report 46(1). Hyattsville, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics, 1997.

  • A study of the effect of migration on risk of breast cancer among Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos living in California showed that Asian Americans born in the West had a breast cancer risk factor that was 60% higher than those born in the East. * Furthermore, this risk doubled after a decade of residence in the West. 17

  • Based on average annual age-adjusted cancer incidence rates between 1988 and 1992 in California, lung cancer incidence was highest among Southeast Asians (70.2 per 100,000), Filipinos (59.9 per 100,000), and Koreans (54.9 per 100,000). 18

  • Cervical cancer incidence was higher among Filipinos, 11.8 per 100,000, while the incidence rate among whites was 7.5 per 100,000, according to average annual age-adjusted cancer incidence rates between 1988 and 1992 in California. 19

  • Based on the 1992–94 aggregated California State Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (BRFS), 13% of APIs were at risk for hypertension. Filipinos had the highest prevalence of hypertension (24.5%).20

  • According to a study done in 1991, among registered Kaiser patients in California, hypercholesterolemia was high among Filipino males, 29.8%.21

  • A study using 1980 census data showed that Chinese-origin and Filipino-origin elderly women who were less acculturated were more likely to live with others than those who were more acculturated. 22

  • An analysis of singleton live births between Asian and white women who delivered in California during 1992 indicated that Filipino women had an increased risk of giving birth to a baby with very low or moderately low birth weight. 23

  • In an analysis conducted for the Committee on the Health and Adjustment of Immigrant Children and Families, the percentage of foreign-born Filipino mothers with low-birth-weight infants was lower than that of U.S.-born Filipino mothers, 6.1% and 6.9%, respectively. 24

  • Consistent with the pattern of low birth weights, infant mortality rates are also lower for infants of immigrants than for U.S.-born Filipino mothers, 4.8% and 6.8%, respectively. 25

  • In a 1990 study of the San Francisco Bay Area, 20% of Filipino women reported experiencing domestic violence. 26

  • According to a San Francisco–based study, Filipino youth (18 years and under) had the highest pregnancy rates among Asians. The rate among Filipino youth was 6.7%, the rate for white youth was 8.5%.27

 

Notes:

    * West includes the United States and its Pacific territories as well as Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. East includes most of Asia (not the former USSR or the Middle East) and the islands in the Pacific Ocean.

  1. S. M. Lee, "Asian Americans: Diverse and Growing," Population Bulletin 53(2). Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, June 1998.
  2. State of California, Department of Finance, Race/Ethnic Population Estimates: Components of Change for California Counties, April 1990 to July 1997. Sacramento, Calif., June 1999.
  3. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1992, 112th edition. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1992.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Asian/Pacific Islander Data Consortium, Our Ten Years of Growth: A Demographic Analysis on Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. San Francisco: Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, 1992.
  7. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Selected Social and Economic Characteristics for the Asian Population: 1990. 1992.
  8. TODCO, South of Market Family Resources Survey. TODCO, 1996.
  9. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1992.
  10. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Selected Social and Economic Characteristics for the Asian Population: 1990.
  11. Asian and Pacific Islander Center for Census Information and Services, Percentage of Legal Permanent Residents Receiving Public Assistance Income by Age Group. San Francisco: Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, 1994.
  12. Education Data Partnership, California Public School Profiles. Revised January 3, 2000. URL: http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us.
  13. Ibid.
  14. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1992.
  15. Ibid.
  16. R. Levan, M. Kagawa-Singer, and R. Wyn, Declining Medi-Cal Coverage Leads to Increasing Uninsured Rate among California’s Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, April 1999.
  17. R. G. Ziegler, R. N. Hoover, M. C. Pike et al., "Migration Patterns and Breast Cancer Risk in Asian-American Women," Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 17 November 1993, 85(22): pp. 1819–1827.
  18. A. Chen, Y. Y. Meng, P. Kunwar et al., The Health Status of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in California. The California Endowment and California HealthCare Foundation, April 1997.
  19. Ibid.
  20. Ibid.
  21. A. L. Klatsky and M. A. Armstrong, "Cardiovascular Risk Factors Among Asian Americans Living in Northern California," American Journal of Public Health, November 1991, pp. 1423–1428.
  22. J. A. Burr and J. E. Mutchler, "Nativity, Acculturation, and Economic Status: Explanations of Asian American Living Arrangements in Later Life," Journal of Gerontology, March 1993, 48(2): pp. S55–63.
  23. E. Fuentes-Afflick and N. A. Hessol, "Impact of Asian Ethnicity and National Origin on Infant Birth Weight," American Journal of Epidemiology, 15 January 1997, 145(2): pp. 148–155.
  24. N. S. Lindale, R. S. Oropesa, and B. Gorman, Immigration and Infant Health: Birth Outcomes of Immigrant and Native Women," in From Generation to Generation: The Health and Well-being of Children in Immigrant Families, D. Hernandez and E. Charney, eds. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998.
  25. Ibid.
  26. National Council for Research on Women, Immigration: Women and Girls Where Do They Land? Who We Welcome and Why, 1995, 1(3): pp. 12–13.
  27. San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco Resident Teen Birth Statistics: 1991. San Francisco: San Francisco Department of Public Health Perinatal Program, 1993.