[Corrie22]

Isn't the population of Asians in the entire country only about 5%?

...and Florida is about 2.5%

that's kinda the middle....so a lot of states must have much less

[Jandrew5]

Originally Posted by cfenn006

Seriously, a Jollibee!?!
I got to check that out, now if I can only find a place that serves Halo-Halo (Learning how to spell it first might help)

There's a Jollibee in Pinellas as well.

[walker1962]

https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/b...0Massachusetts.

This link ranks Florida's Asian population as 7th highest. Another website shows:
Here are the 10 states with the largest Asian population: per a 2021 report:

California (6,551,730) ~ 16.4% of total population
New York (1,839,680)
Texas (1,565,750) - ~ 5.4% of the population
New Jersey (923,811)
Washington (812,035)
Illinois (808,038)
Hawaii (802,551)
Florida (734,880) - ~ 3.5% of total population
Virginia (664,348)
Massachusetts (516,599) -~ 7.4% of state residents are of Asian descent.

[WrongStreet]

Maybe it's just my perception, but I have noticed the Asian population grow quite a bit over the last 15 years. Particularly in Broward. I hope it continues to grow to bring more diversity, especially in South Florida.

[anonymouse428]

When it comes down to it, it's cause of lack of jobs and Asian community. I'm Asian American and lived in Orlando and Tampa for six years. For a while, I wanted to seek out other Asian Americans to befriend, but have struggled to meet others in my job field or my age range. Onto my points:

LACK OF COMMUNITY: The Asian Social Orlando meetup has been inactive for a while and the local NAAAP (Asian professional organization) mostly consists of older people. I've also been on and off the dating apps, and I see the same handful of Asian dudes on there for years now. The Asians I do see are mainly students or immigrants. It's clear that the young Asian Americans in STEM or tech don't stay in Florida when bigger cities offer far better job opportunities. I'm currently living in Atlanta, and it's just freaking night and day. There is a large Asian community here and I've met lots of transplants like myself. Tons of food options as well. The job market for tech here is hot and so Asian yuppies flock here.

LACK OF HIGH QUALITY JOBS: It's pretty self-explanatory that Orlando and Florida isn't exactly a hotbed for STEM jobs. The wages they offer here were below average for my field and experience while Orlando is getting way too expensive to live. All my friends who I graduated with have moved away for better jobs and that's just how it is and how it'll always be in Orlando until they diversify their economy and strengthen their community here.

[mwalker96]

Jacksonville has a large Filipino community. Not many people talk Jax Asian community.

[floridarebel]

Florida is further away from Asia than the west coast is. The west coast has more Asians due to closer location. If Florida were in the west, the state would have more Asians.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by floridarebel

Florida is further away from Asia than the west coast is. The west coast has more Asians due to closer location. If Florida were in the west, the state would have more Asians.

The rest of the East Coast is further away from the West Coast and has nothing to do with geography. As pointed out FL is more/less low wage with higher housing costs and almost as important to many Asians (especially Chinese, Korean, Indian, Pakistani) FL's public education pales in comparison to states like NY, NJ, MD, VA, CT and MA for those with kids. There is a very high value placed on achieving the best education and a lot of societal pressure for children to perform well academically. For those already with better-paying jobs and no kids yet perhaps, losing 20%-30% (or more) of potential income isn't worth the trade-off either versus larger Sunbelt cities like Atlanta, Houston or even Charlotte. Lastly, the cultural attraction isn't here either minus the communities where the traditions of the home country are quite visible and immersible (think Chinatowns, Koreatowns and Muslim or Islamic heavy neighborhoods) in the Northeast US.

[MOforthewin]

Why? I think you will find more of them in places like Tampa, Orlando, or southeast FL. Younger places and where more of the educated people live and work. Here in Southwest FL I don't find many of them. Our region is a tourist and service industry oriented location.

[mwalker96]

Originally Posted by MOforthewin

Why? I think you will find more of them in places like Tampa, Orlando, or southeast FL. Younger places and where more of the educated people live and work. Here in Southwest FL I don't find many of them. Our region is a tourist and service industry oriented location.

While Florida is generally known as a retirement state, lots of young adults live in Florida's bigger cities. ABC had a sitcom called fresh off the boat which was about an Asian family who moved from DC to Orlando in the 90s.