Factsheet:
Cambodian and Laotian Americans

by Ying Ying Meng

Population

  • In 1997, three Southeast Asian groups—Cambodians, Laotians, and Hmong—made up about 5% of the Asian American population. 1
  • In July 1997, 13.8% percent of the population in San Joaquin County were APIs. 2
  • From the 1990 census to July 1997, the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) population in San Joaquin County has increased at the fastest rate, 34.3% (Table 1). The major increase of the API population came from migration (56.2%).3

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

 

Total

White

Black

Native American

API

Hispanic

April 1990

480,628

283,583

24,791

3,807

55,774

112,673

July 1997

542,164

298,279

28,696

3,941

74,918

136,330

Change since 1990

61,536

14,696

3,905

134

19,144

23,657

% Change

12.8%

5.2%

15.8%

3.5%

34.3%

21%

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, about 23% of the population of Stockton City of San Joaquin County, California, were APIs. Among them, 5% were Cambodians and 4% were Laotians (Figure 1). 4

Figure 1

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census of Population and Housing, 1990, Summary Tape File Three on CD-ROM [machine-readable data files]. Washington, D.C., 1992.

  • Stockton had 10,212 Cambodians, or 98% of the San Joaquin County Cambodian population, 15% of the California Cambodian population, and 6.9% of the U.S. Cambodian population in 1990. 5
  • Based on 1990 census data, the total Cambodian population was 147,411 in the United States, or 2% of the API population. Since 1980 the Cambodian population has grown 1,120.7% in California. 6
  • Stockton had 4,045 Laotians, or 95.5% of the San Joaquin County Laotian population, 7% of the California Laotian population, and 2.7% of the U.S. Laotian population in 1990. 7
  • In 1990, the total Laotian population was 149,014, or 2% of the API population in the United States. Since 1980 the Laotian population has grown 386% in California. 8
  • Based on 1990 census data, 79% of the Cambodians and Laotians in the United States were foreign born. 9
  • The nation’s Cambodian and Laotian population was young, with a median age of 19.4 and 20.4 in 1990, respectively. This is about thirteen years younger than the median age for the U.S. population as a whole. 10

  • In 1990, among those Cambodians five years and older who spoke an API language at home, 73.2% of them did not speak English well or not at all and 56.1% of the households were linguistically isolated.* Among Laotians, 70.2% do not speak English well and 52.4% of the households were linguistically isolated. 11
  • U.S. total Lao Iu Mien population was about 32,000, or 0.4% of the API population; 27,920, or 87% of the Iu Mien population, live in California. 12
  • Oakland in Alameda County has 4,500 Lao Iu Mien, or 16% of the California Iu Mien population and 14% of the U.S. Lao Iu Mien population, based on a 1997 estimation. 13
  • Average household size of the Iu Mien community in Oakland is 11.4 people. 14

 

Economic Status

  • San Joaquin County (Stockton) in 1995 had the highest per capita rate of public assistance in the country with 25% of its population receiving Medi-Cal (Medicaid). Yet it also had the highest average household income of the San Joaquin Valley counties—$57,991. Thus it seems to have two groups—the very poor and the prosperous middle class. 15
  • Per capita income of the API population in Stockton City in 1989 was the lowest ($6,914) among all the racial groups. By comparison, whites had a per capita income of $14,141 and blacks of $7,789. 16
  • In 1989, 47.3% of Cambodians and 50.5% of Laotians lived below the poverty line in California, as compared with whites, who had only 9%.17
  • Across the United States in 1989, 38.1% of Cambodian families had no one working in the family, while 26.7% of Laotian families had no one working in the family. 18
  • Among legal permanent residents, 20.9% of Cambodians under 65 and 53.5% of Cambodians over 65 received public assistance. In addition, 14.8% of Laotians under 65 and 58.3% of Laotians over 65 received public assistance in 1990. 19
  • In June 1999, the unemployment rate of the Southeast Asians in San Joaquin County was estimated to be 35–40%, while the overall local unemployment rate was 9%.20

 

Education

  • In the Stockton City Unified School District, 20.9% of the enrolled students in 1997 and 1998 were Asians, excluding Filipino and Pacific Islanders, while 6% of the teachers were Asians. 21
  • The four-year school dropout rate among Asian students in the Stockton City Unified School District was 7.1%, which was lower than the overall dropout rate in the district (9.5%).22
  • During the 1998 school year, 29.7% of students enrolled in the Stockton City Unified School District were Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students. 23
  • The top five languages spoken by LEP students during the 1997–98 school year in the Stockton City Unified School District were Spanish (5,557), Hmong (1,725), Khmer (1,609), and Lao (544). 24
  • According to the 1990 census, 48% of the Cambodians and 45% of the Laotians had less than a fifth-grade education. 25

 

Health

  • A study of insurance rates among California’s APIs indicated that Southeast Asians had been most dramatically affected by declining Medi-Cal coverage. In 1994–95, the Medi-Cal program insured 51% of Southeast Asians. In 1996–97, the percentage declined to 34%. Because the job-based coverage and privately purchased insurance remained the same, the uninsured rate doubled from 11% to 23%.26
  • Cambodian young adults, 15–24 years, had one of the highest male homicide rates (after Samoans) in California during 1989–91, five times more than the rate of whites. 27
  • The health services to Cambodian Medi-Cal beneficiaries in San Joaquin County were 71% less and for Laotian beneficiaries were 65% less than expected during 1996–97. At the same time, African Americans had 22% and whites 49% more services than expected. 28
  • Laotians had the highest rates of teen pregnancy in California, 8.7%, while the Chinese had the lowest percentage, 0.3%, based on a 1994 study. 29
  • Based on average annual age-adjusted cancer incidence rates between 1988 and 1992 in California, lung cancer incidence was the highest among Southeast Asians (70.2 per 100,000), Filipinos (59.9 per 100,000), and Koreans (54.9 per 100,000). 30
  • Cervical cancer incidence was the highest among Southeast Asians, 35.2 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. 31
  • A study conducted by Mayo Clinic indicated that initial breast and cervical cancer screening rates for Cambodian women older than 50 years of age who had used the health care system were significantly lower than for non-Cambodians. Expressed barriers included lack of knowledge about cancer, shyness at physical examinations, lack of transportation, fear of a large technical medical center, and need to make appointments. 32
  • The mental health status of a general population sample of Cambodian refugees living in the United States was assessed ten years after leaving their homes in Cambodia. Subjects were found to be experiencing extremely high levels of posttraumatic stress disorder, dissociation, depression, and anxiety. Ninety percent of these refugees exhibited marked symptomatology in one or more of these categories. 33
  • Among Asian Americans, Japanese women were most likely to seek prenatal care in their first trimester (89.6%), while Laotian women were least likely to seek early care (56.1%). This resulted in Laotian babies being at more than twice the risk of pre-term births. 34
  • In the United States, an estimated 10–15% of Southeast Asians are chronic carriers of the hepatitis B virus. 35
  • Cigarette smoking among Cambodian and Laotian men is among the highest reported in the United States. A study published in 1997 reported a 33–55% smoking rate for Cambodians, and a 72% rate for Laotians. 36

 

End Notes:

    * Based on the Census definition, a household is classified as "linguistically isolated" if it includes a person aged 14 years or over who does not speak English, and a person aged 14 years or over who speaks a language other than English and does not speak English "very well."

  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. Ibid.
  4. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census of Population and Housing, 1990, Summary Tape File Three on CD-ROM [machine-readable data files]. Washington, D.C., 1992.
  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, Census of Populations and Housing, 1990.
  8. Asian/Pacific Data Consortium, Our Ten Years of Growth.
  9. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Selected Social and Economic Characteristics for the Asian Population: 1990. Washington, D.C., 1992.
  10. Ibid.
  11. Ibid.
  12. J. L. Macdonald, Transnational Aspects of Iu-Mien Refugee Identity. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997.
  13. Ibid.
  14. J. C. Barker and K. Saechao, "A Demographic Survey of Iu-Mien in West Coast States of the U.S., 1993," Journal of Immigrant Health 2(1), 2000.
  15. San Joaquin County Mental Health Services, Cultural Competency Plan, April 1999.
  16. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census of Population and Housing, 1990.
  17. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 CP-2-6, Social and Economic Characteristics for California. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, September 1993.
  18. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Selected Social and Economic Characteristics for the Asian Population.
  19. 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.
  20. Lao Khmu Association, Inc., Service Background Information. Stockton, Calif., 1999.
  21. Education Data Partnership, California Public School Profiles. Revised January 3, 2000. URL: http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us.
  22. Ibid.
  23. California Department of Education, Language Census (Form R30-LC). Educational Demographics Unit, Limited-English-Proficient (LEP) Students and Enrollment in California Public Schools, 1993–1998. http://www.cde.ca.gov/demographics/reports/stetewide/lepstpct.html, 1999.
  24. California Department of Education, Language Census (Form R30-LC), Educational Demographics Unit. Number of Limited-English-Proficient (LEP) Students in California Public Schools, for the Top Twenty Languages, 1997–1998. http://www.cde.ca.gov/demographics/reports/county/lep20c98.html, 1999.
  25. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990 CP-2-6, Social and Economic Characteristics for California.
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. San Joaquin County Mental Health Services, Cultural Competency Plan.
  29. S. Dumbault, J. A. McCullough, and J. W. Sutocky, Analysis of Health Indicators for California Minority Populations. Minority Health Information Project, February 1994.
  30. Chen, Meng, Kunwar et al., The Health Status of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in California.
  31. Ibid.
  32. A. W. Kelly, M. Fores Chacori, P. C. Wollan et al., A Program to Increase Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening for Cambodian Women in a Midwestern Community. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, May 1996, 71(5): pp. 437–444.
  33. E. B. Carlson and R. Rosser-Hogan, "Mental Health Status of Cambodian Refugees Ten Years after Leaving Their Homes," American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, April 1993, 63(2): pp. 223–231.
  34. S. Dumbault, J. A. McCullough, and J. W. Sutocky, Analysis of Health Indicators for California Minority Populations.
  35. J. C. Jackson, L. A. Rhodes, T. S. Inui, and D. Buchward, "Hepatitis B among the Khmer: Issues of Translation and Concepts of Illness," Journal of General Internal Medicine, 1997, 12(4): pp. 292–298.
  36. M. L. Moeschberger, M. A. S. Anderson, Y.-F. Kuo et al., "Multivariate Profile of Smoking in Southeast Asian Men: A Biochemically Verified Analysis," Preventive Medicine, January–February 1997, 26(1): pp. 53–58.

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