A restaurant vendor sells Chinese food in Queens, New York, in January 2022. According to a new analysis from the Pew Research Center, about 12% of all restaurants in the United States serve Asian food. This share is slightly higher than the 7% of the US population who are Asian American. How we achieved this The Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to examine the geographic distribution of Asian restaurants in the United States and highlight the culinary patterns on offer. The Center purchased point-of-interest data from SafeGraph, a data company that organizes high-precision data on millions of locations around the world, representing that all known restaurants in US Restaurants are identified using the North American Industry Classification System category. For “Restaurants and Other Eating Places” . When data was collected on March 23, 2023, SafeGraph included records of 787,153 open restaurants in the US. Next, we used SafeGraph's category tags to identify Asian restaurants and the types of food they serve. Throughout this article, we use terms like "Chinese restaurants", "Chinese cuisine" and "Restaurants serving Chinese food" interchangeably. These labels include food categories from 10 different origin groups Chinese, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Philippine, Japanese, Burmese, Pakistani, Mongolian and Thai. In addition to these groups based on specific types of Asian food, category tags also include a general "Asian food" category. This is a broad classification used in restaurants that do not have enough information to place them in a more specific category. Our own review of this label has found that it may also include Restaurants serving smaller origin groups or groups that do not have a more detailed list of categories on SafeGraph. These include restaurants in Bhutan, Taiwan, Indonesia or Laos, among others. General "pan-Asian" cuisine, on its own or in combination with other types of food. The other three category labels - "sushi", "noodles" and "bubble tea shop" - do not explicitly refer to an Asian group, but are often related to Asian cuisine. Restaurants with the “Sushi” label are included in the “Japanese food” category. Restaurants labeled "noodles" or "bubble tea shop" are included in the "Other AsianUnspecified" category unless the restaurant has already been labeled with a more specific category. Restaurants labeled "Italian food" or "pizza with noodles" do not count as Asian restaurants. These examples usually refer to the pasta noodles typical of Italian cuisine. Individual restaurants may be included in more than one category. For example, a restaurant might have labels for "Japanese food" and "Thai food" or "Chinese food" and "Asian food". These restaurants are counted under all listed categories. Therefore, reported totals may exceed 100%. Asian group population estimates are from the American Community Survey's 5-year 2019 estimates, table B02015, which includes counties and county equivalents . About seven-tenths of all Asian restaurants in the United States serve food from only three Asian groups Chinese, Japanese, and Thai. Together, these groups make up 33% of the US Asian population. Here are some other key takeaways from the analysis based on data from SafeGraph, a data company that compiles high-precision data in millions of locations around the world. Chinese establishments are by far the most common type of Asian restaurant in the US. About four in ten Asian restaurants serve Chinese food with a long history in the United States. Asians living in the USA. Despite these groups' relatively small shares in the U.S. population, Japanese and Thai food spread widely. The first sushi restaurant in the US opened a little over 50 years ago, but today, sushi is widely available from coast to coast. Restaurants serving Japanese food make up 28% of Asian restaurants in the US, making it the second most common Asian cuisine. Japanese Americans, by comparison, are the sixth largest group of Asian descent in the country, making up 7% of the US Asian population. Similarly, Thai establishments account for 11% of all Asian restaurants, while only 2% of Asian Americans are Thai, making it the third most common cuisine after Chinese and Japanese. The Thai government has historically supported efforts to increase the number of Thai restaurants around the world as a form of diplomacy. Indian and Filipino businesses make up a relatively small portion of Asian restaurants. Although Indian and Filipino Americans make up about 40% of Asians in the US, they make up 7% and 1%, respectively, of all Asian restaurants in the US. Like the Asian American population, Asian restaurants in the US are predominantly concentrated in a few states. More than half of Asian Americans live in five states California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, and Washington. And just under half – 45% – of all Asian restaurants are located in these five states. More than 15% of all restaurants in Hawaii, California, Washington, Nevada, and New York serve Asian food, and each state has a significant Asian American population. Meanwhile, Asian restaurants account for 6% of all restaurants in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia. About three-quarters of all counties in the US have at least one Asian restaurant of any type. And in eight counties with at least 15 restaurants of any type, Asian restaurants account for at least a quarter of all catering establishments. Half of these counties are in California. Chinese restaurants are found in every state and 70% of all US counties. Every state and one-third or more of all counties has at least one Japanese or Thai restaurant. However, restaurants serving other Asian dishes are less widely distributed. About one in five US counties have Vietnamese and Indian restaurants, and less than 10% of counties have Filipino, Pakistani, Mongolian or Burmese restaurants. About 9% of Asian restaurants in the US serve cuisines from more than one Asian origin. About seven out of 10 of these businesses combine Chinese or Japanese food with each other or with another cuisine 18% serve Chinese and Thai food, 15% Japanese and Thai food, and 10% Japanese food. and Korean food. However, these relationships are not always symmetrical. For example, 78% of Pakistani restaurants in the US also serve Indian food, while only 10% of Indian restaurants serve Pakistani food. Gotopnews.com