TL;DR
There are more than 5.5 million Chinese Americans, but they are heavily concentrated: California and New York together hold roughly half of them.
The latest community survey from the US Census Bureau puts out a number: counting mixed-race and multi-ethnic people, Chinese Americans now number over 5.5 million.
Two states hold half of them
About half of that population lives in just two states — California and New York. California is the largest by far, with 1.97 million, more than double New York's 770,000.
The rest are spread across Texas, Washington, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida. Florida, in tenth place, has only 120,000 — not the same order of magnitude as California at all.
Crowded does not mean rich
The author also lists each state's per-capita disposable income, and the result is a little counterintuitive: California, with the most Chinese residents, ranks third at $77,000 a year. The top spots go to Massachusetts at $82,000 and Washington at $80,000.
New York, second in population, sits lower at $74,000. Texas and Pennsylvania tie for the bottom of the list at $65,000.
A commenter points out that raw numbers are unfair — look at the share of each state's population instead, and Hawaii wins by a mile.
Why it matters
The comments are where this list earns its keep: readers are using it to pick a place to retire. A large Chinese population means Chinese restaurants, Mandarin-speaking doctors and neighbours you can talk to; high income means you can afford them — and the two rarely land in the same state.
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