For Generations to Come: Chinese American Philanthropy in the Bay Area Page 5

The Chinese American population in the U.S. is generally highly
educated, with more than 50 percent having attained at least a
bachelor's degree, compared with 28 percent for the general U.S.
population. In several Bay Area counties, including Alameda,
Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara, the median income of
Chinese Americans ($75,699 - $112,255) is overall higher than that
of the population of California ($74,774) and higher than that of
the general U.S. population ($67,117). About half of the Chinese
American population in the Bay Area works in one of three U.S.
Census-defined sectors: manufacturing (17.2 percent); professional,
scientific, management, and administrative (16.8%); and educational
services, and health care and social assistance (17.3 percent).

More detailed information on the demographic composition of the
Chinese American community in the San Francisco Bay Area is provided in Appendix A.

The Chinese American Community

in the Bay Area

Chinese immigration to the United States began in the nineteenth century, with a large number of immigrants entering
the U.S. through San Francisco during the 1849 Gold Rush.

3,4

As opportunities from the Gold Rush began to decline

in the 1860s, many went to work in agriculture and on the railroads, while others moved to the cities in search of work
and to start businesses. Many eventually settled in San Francisco, where the Chinese population tripled between
1860 and 1870, from less than 3,000 to more than 12,000.

Over the next decades, the Chinese population in and around San Francisco continued to thrive, and began to
expand into the larger Bay Area. Once the immigration restrictions imposed in the 1880s by the U.S. government
on people of Chinese origin were lifted in the 1960s, immigration began to rise in response to the educational and
business opportunities of the burgeoning technology industry in the South Bay region. Much of the population growth
occurred in the greater Bay Area outside of the San Francisco city limits; in 1950, more than 68 percent of the Bay
Area's Chinese population lived within the San Francisco city limits; by 1990 that percentage was below 40 percent.

As of 2008, more than half of all Chinese immigrants in the United States lived in California or New York. In California,
the largest populations are in greater San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles. As of the 2010 Census, nearly 40
percent of Chinese Americans in the Bay Area were U.S.-born, roughly the same proportion as for California and for
the country as a whole. The foreign-born population arrived slightly earlier to California and the Bay Area (50 percent
before 1990) as compared with the rest of the U.S. (42 percent before 1990). More than half of Chinese Americans
who were not born in the U.S. were born in Mainland China (57 percent of foreign-born Chinese Americans in the
Bay Area; 54 percent in the U.S. overall). The remaining foreign-born Chinese Americans were born in Taiwan,
Hong Kong, or another country.

Wey, N. (2004). A History of Chinese Americans in California. IN Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California. National Park Service. Accessed 8/30/2013 at http://www.

nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views3a.htm.

McCabe, K. (2012). Chinese Immigrants in the United States. Washington DC: Migration Policy Institute. Accessed 8/30/2013 at http://www.migrationinformation.org/USFocus/

display.cfm?id=876. (NOTE: numbers in this source include individuals from Mainland China and Hong Kong only.)-

Takaki, R. (1993). A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., p.191-221.

Bay Area Census. Accessed on 8/30/2013, at http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/index.html. Bay Area regional data includes nine counties. Beginning in 2000, Chinese heritage was

subsumed into the Asian category.

CHINESE POPULATION WITHIN SAN FRANCISCO CITY LIMITS

> 68%

< 40%

1950

1990

100%

50%

28%

Chinese Americans

U.S. Population

POPULATION ATTAINING AT LEAST

A BACHELOR'S DEGREE

SILICON VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION