A glance at Vietnamese-American community 40 years after war

In this Friday, April 24, 2015 photo, Son The, 74, who does maintenance work at a shrine inside the Asian Garden Mall, kisses a statue while praying in Little Saigon in Westminster, Calif. Forty years since the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, the thousands who fled their collapsing country still remember what they lost, but also take the moment to think about what they’ve gained as they rebuilt their lives in the U.S. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) In this Friday, April 24, 2015 photo, Son The, 74, who does maintenance work at a shrine inside the Asian Garden Mall, kisses a statue while praying in Little Saigon in Westminster, Calif. Forty years since the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, the thousands who fled their collapsing country still remember what they lost, but also take the moment to think about what they’ve gained as they rebuilt their lives in the U.S. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

By Associated Press April 29, 2015 2 min read

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) – Over the last four decades, the Vietnamese community in the U.S. has grown to 1.7 million, with elected representatives to Congress, state government and local offices.

Here are some facts about the Vietnamese-American community:

– In the 1970 census, the Vietnamese population wasn’t counted as a separate ethnic group. A decade later, the country had 262,000 Vietnamese residents, and the community more than doubled in the 1980s, census data shows. More than 1.7 million people identified as Vietnamese in the 2010 census.

– One in 10 Asian-Americans is Vietnamese. Vietnamese-Americans are the fourth-biggest Asian group in the U.S., following Chinese-, Filipino- and Indian-Americans.

– More than a third of Vietnamese-Americans live in California, with major hubs in Orange County and San Jose. Texas, Washington state and Florida are also home to sizable Vietnamese communities.