Korean American facts for kids
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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,887,914- 2,492,252 0.6%-0.7% of the U.S. population (2017) |
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| Regions with significant populations | |
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| Languages | |
| English, Korean | |
| Religion | |
| 61% Protestantism 23% Unaffiliated 10% Roman Catholicism 6% Buddhism |
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean heritage or descent, mostly from South Korea (99%), and with a very small minority from North Korea, China, Japan, and the Post-Soviet states.
According to the statistics of the Overseas Korean Foundation and the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 107,145 South Korean children were adopted into the United States between 1953 and 2007.
While people living in North Korea cannot—except under rare circumstances—leave their country, there are many people of North Korean origin living in the U.S., a major portion who fled to the south during the Korean War and later emigrated to the United States. Since the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 allowed North Korean defectors to be admitted as refugees, about 130 have settled in the U.S. under that status.
The Korean American community comprises about 0.6% of the United States population, or about 1.8 million people, and is the fifth largest Asian American subgroup. The U.S. is home to the second largest Korean community in the world after the People's Republic of China.
The reasons for immigration are many including the desire for increased freedom and the hope for better economic opportunities.
Korean Americans can speak a combination of English and Korean depending on where they were born and when they immigrated to the United States. New immigrants often use a mixture of Korean and English, a practice also known as code switching.
Images for kids
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Korean Americans have achieved a high demographic profile in some U.S. cities, including New York City.
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Koreans in the United States, on the census 2000
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Korean-American football player in Chicago, 1918
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A wide range of Korean Americans
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Juju Chang is an American television journalist for ABC News, and currently serves as an anchor of Nightline.
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Randall Park beginning in 2015 he portrayed Eddie Huang's father, American restaurateur Louis Huang, in ABC's television show Fresh Off the Boat.
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In areas with many Korean immigrants, the Korean language is still used for newspapers, religion, and business signage, in addition to conversational use.
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David Chang is an American restaurateur, author, and television personality.
