New Website Offers Graphical Data on U.S.-Asia Connections

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 10) – It’s well known that Asia has key relationships with the United States in a variety of important measures, including overall trade, U.S. exports, immigrant populations, international students and more.
For example:

Trade with Asia is increasing faster than with any other region.
Merchandise exports to Asia earned America $305 billion in 2007, more than those to the European Union and nearly as much as those to America’s NAFTA neighbors.
Asia accounts for 27 percent of total U.S. jobs from exports, more than the European Union and second only to NAFTA.
13 million Americans identify themselves as “Asian alone,” a population that grew 8 percent from 2004 to 2006, while the general U.S. population grew 2 percent.
25 percent of America’s foreign-born population comes from Asia, and Asians are more likely than other groups to become American citizens.
Students from Asia make up more than half of America's 556,000 international students, and they contribute an estimated $6.7 billion to the U.S. economy (2005-06 academic year)

But what has been less widely understood is the importance that these relationships with Asia hold for individual U.S. states and even congressional districts. Now this information is readily available in user-friendly graphic formats at AsiaMattersforAmerica.org, a new, interactive website that provides an online hub for viewers to explore the importance of Asia to specific U.S. areas. Presented by the East-West Center – an education and research institution with facilities in Honolulu, Hawai‘i and Washington, D.C. – the Asia Matters for America site displays data on such topics as exports, employment, ethnicity and students from Asia in innovative and understandable ways.

For example, did you know that:

In 2006, the value of exports to Asia per capita from Vermont was nearly as high as those of California and Texas combined.
Washington's exports to Asia account for 12 percent of the state's GDP, the highest in the nation.
In 2005, Massachusetts' 8th Congressional district (where Harvard and MIT are located) had 8,735 foreign students from Asia who contributed an estimated $271 million to the economy, the most in the country.
New Jersey has 485,000 foreign-born people from Asia who account for 5.6 percent of the state's population, the third-highest percentage in the nation.
From 2001 to 2007, Montana saw the value of its exports to Asia grow by 339 percent, the fastest growth in the country.

"The Asia Matters for America initiative was launched to create a 'go-to place' for information, data and analysis of U.S.-Asia interactions,” said Dr. Satu Limaye, director of the East-West Center in Washington. “The project is designed to provide user-friendly information for political leaders, policymakers, business people, analysts, media and students – all of the constituencies that are critical to the East-West Center’s goals of ‘forming and informing leaders’ and building an Asia Pacific community.”

Added East-West Center President Charles E. Morrison: "We know that Asia is significant, but the Asia Matters for America website allows us to visually see how truly important it is – not just to our country as a whole, but also to our individual communities. It synthesizes in one place relevant data from many different sources. The site should be as useful to teachers and business people as it is to diplomats and policymakers."

On the Asia Matters website, users can create interactive maps and charts using selected regional data; instantly access Top 10 lists for each variable; analyze data by per-capita, per-GDP, or as a percentage of total; compare data across neighboring states and congressional districts; explore detailed reports for each state; and much more.

In addition to the website, the initiative includes printed maps, outreach events, conferences and analytical publications. The first phase of the project focuses on trade, student, and societal impacts. Future phases will address such other interactions such as foreign direct investment, immigration and more.

For more information or to provide feedback on the Asia Matters for America website, email asiamatters@eastwestcenter.org or call +1 (202) 327-9763.

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The EAST-WEST CENTER is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. Headquartered in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, the Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and the governments of the region.

The EAST-WEST CENTER IN WASHINGTON enhances U.S. engagement and dialogue with the Asia-Pacific region through access to the programs and expertise of the Center and policy-relevant research, publications and outreach activities, including those of the U.S. Asia-Pacific Council.