May 24, 2023
(press release)
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Some 12% of all restaurants in
How we did this
The Center purchased point-of-interest data from SafeGraph, a data company that curates high-precision data on millions of places around the globe, representing all known restaurants in the
We then used SafeGraph's category tags to identify Asian restaurants and the type(s) of food they serve. Throughout this post, we use phrases such as "Chinese restaurants," "Chinese cuisine" and "restaurants that serve Chinese food" interchangeably. These tags include categories for food from 10 different origin groups: Chinese, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Japanese, Burmese, Pakistani, Mongolian and Thai. In addition to these groups based on specific types of Asian food, the category tags also include a general "Asian food" category. This is a broad catch-all classification that is used with restaurants that have insufficient information to place in a more specific category. Our own review of this tag found that that it may also include: Restaurants serving the food of smaller origin groups or groups for which SafeGraph lacks a more detailed category listing. These include Bhutanese, Taiwanese, Indonesian or Laotian restaurants, among others. General "pan-Asian" cuisine, either on its own or in conjunction with other types of food. Three other category tags "sushi," "noodles"and "bubble tea shop" do not explicitly reference an Asian origin group but are commonly related to Asian cuisine. Restaurants with the "sushi" tag are included in the "Japanese food" category. Restaurants with the "noodles" or "bubble tea shop" tags are included in the "Other Asian/Unspecified" category unless the restaurant is already tagged with a more specific category. Any restaurants tagged as "Italian food" or "pizza along with noodles" are not counted as Asian restaurants. These instances generally refer to the pasta noodle typical of Italian cuisine. Individual restaurants can be included in multiple categories. For instance, a restaurant may include tags for "Japanese food" and "Thai food," or for "Chinese food" and "Asian food." These restaurants are counted under all categories listed. Because of this, the totals reported may exceed 100%. Asian origin group population estimates are taken from table B02015 of the
Around seven-in-ten of all Asian restaurants in the
Here are some other key takeaways from the analysis, which is based on data from SafeGraph, a data company that curates high-precision data on millions of places around the globe. Chinese establishments are by far the most common type of Asian restaurant in the
Japanese and Thai food has spread widely, despite these groups' relatively small shares of the
Similarly, Thai establishments make up 11% of all Asian restaurants the third-most common cuisine behind Chinese and Japanese food while just 2% of Asian Americans are Thai. 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 establishments account for a relatively small share of Asian restaurants. Indian and Filipino restaurants account for 7% and 1% of all Asian restaurants in the
Like the Asian American population, Asian restaurants in the
More than 15% of all restaurants in
Around three-quarters of all counties in the
Chinese restaurants are found in every state and in 70% of all
However, restaurants serving other types of Asian food are less widely distributed. Around one-in-five
Some 9% of Asian restaurants in the
However, these relationships are not always symmetrical. For instance, 78% of Pakistani restaurants in the
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