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According to the above definition, about four billion people or more than 57% of the world's population is Asian.^[8] The region to which the term applies includes the two most populated countries in the world: the People's Republic of China with 1.3 billion people^[9] and the Republic of India with 1.1 billion people.^[10] The term Asian also includes the largest single ethnic group in the world, the Han Chinese, who numbered over 1.16 billion in 2004 and made up about 20% of the world population.^[11]

"Asian" in Western countries

"Asian" in Australia

The Australian Census includes many more regions of Asia in its official definition. Defined by the 2006-2011 Australian Census, three categories have the word Asian included in their name: "Central and Southern Asians", "South-East Asians" and "North-East Asians". Russians and Middle Easterners are not considered to be Asians in the 2006-2011 Australian Census. Russians are classified with "Southern and Eastern Europeans" while Middle Easterners are classified with "North African and Middle Easterners".^[12]

"Asian" in the UK and Anglophone Africa

In the United Kingdom and certain parts of Anglophone Africa, especially East Africa, the term "Asian," though it can refer to the continent of Asia as a whole,^[13] is more commonly associated with the people and cultures of South Asia. This includes modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Those of East Asian origin, such as the Chinese or Vietnamese (referred to as Oriental in the UK and the Commonwealth), are usually not included in the term. This is reflected in the "ethnic group" section of UK census forms, which treat "Asian" and "Chinese" as separate (see British Asian).^[14]

The United Kingdom and Anglophone Africa^[15] are two places in the Western world where the word "Asian" is used primarily to identify people from the Indian subcontinent, although in Africa Asian can refer to East Asians as well.^[16] Of course, in Asia, the word "Asian" has a more localized definition when describing people by face, and is more inclusive when describing Asians by culture.

"Asian" in Canada

In Canada, Asian refers to people from the Far East, Southeast Asia,^[17] and the Indian Subcontinent.^[18]

"Asian" in the United States

For purposes of the U.S. Census, the term "Asian" is defined as "people who have origins in the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent".^[19] Respondents can also report more specific ancestry, such as Asian Indian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Pakistani, Laotian, Thai, Bhutanese, and so on, including "Other Asian". Someone reporting these ancestries but no race will be classified as "Asian". Central Asians were classified as "Asiatic" on the 1910 US Census which legally hindered their immigration along with other Asians. Central Asian Turks were the targets of anti-Asian hysteria during the "yellow race crisis".^[20]

United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind 261 U.S. 204 (1923)^[21] was a case in which the United States Supreme Court decided that Bhagat Singh Thind, a native of India, could not be a naturalized citizen of the United States, despite the fact that a number anthropologists had defined members of the Indian subcontinent as being members of the Caucasian race. The ruling followed a decision in Takao Ozawa v. United States where the same court had ruled that a light-skinned native of Japan could not count as "white", because "White" meant "Caucasian",^[22] establishing White and Caucasian to be interchangeable terms for a single people of whom neither Japanese Americans nor Indian Americans are included.^[23] According to a social scientist Rosanne Skirble, the term Caucasian is becoming less frequently used in favor of White American or European American.^[24] Although the restrictions on immigration and naturalization of East and South Asians were later repealed, the practice of classifying East and South Asians in an "Asian" category has its roots in this period. West Asians were classified as White since they never constituted a large immigrant group that had significant physical difference from European Americans.^[25]

According to Sharon M. Lee in her 1998 publication, for many non-Asian Americans in the United States (in 1998) Asian American means Oriental, Chinese American or Japanese American. This is due to the Chinese and Japanese immigrants being the first immigrants into the United States. Today, with the increasing demographic of Korean Americans, South Asian Americans and Southeast Asian Americans the definition among United States citizens of who is Asian American is expanding.^[26]

"West Asians"

The name Asia is probably derived from ancient Assyrian.^[28] These West Asians vehemetly do not want to be labeled as "Asians" because they associated the word with East Asian.^[29] It therefore originally referred to the regions now called "West Asia" and "Central Asia", the Sinai Peninsula to Persia and Asia Minor to Arabia.

Clovis Maksound, Director for the Organization of Global South, argues that the term "Middle East" is a Eurocentric moniker denoting the region between Europe and East Asia, because it denies the Middle East's connection with Muslim North Africa.^[30] In English parlance, Western Asians like Iranians and Arabs,^[31] and the Central Asians of the former Soviet Republics are not referred to as "Asian".^[32]

Orientals and the Orient

The term "Oriental" (from the Latin word for "Eastern")^[33] was originally used in Europe in reference to the Near East. It was later extended to the rest of Asia, but came to refer to East Asians and Southeast Asians in the 19th and 20th century US,^[34] where most Asians were Chinese (and later Japanese and Filipino). By the late 20th century, the term had gathered associations in North America with older attitudes now seen as outmoded, and was replaced with the term "Asian" as part of the updating of language concerning social identities,^[35] which critics have derided as political correctness.^[36] Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, "Oriental" does not have such associations (except perhaps in Australia and among those exposed to the US use of the term).

Asian Russians (Kalmyks, Tuvans, and others)

Most of Russia's huge territory is in Asia, though the majority of its population is in Europe and ethnically Slavic. Depending on context, Russian people may be considered European or mixed according to their individual ethnic nationality, ancestry, or appearance. They may be considered European or Asian based on their current or recent place of residence or just by the state in which they happen to reside (and whether it extends into Europe or Asia).^[37] The word Eurasian is also often used to describe Russia's position in the world. See also Transcontinental nation.^[38]

Russians are generally not included in the term "Asian";^[39] one exception being the Kalmyks, the only Buddhist Asians living in East Europe in the republic of Kalmykia, which is a federal subject of Russia.^[40]

Pacific Islanders

In normal usage Asian does not refer to the people from the Pacific Islands who are usually called Pacific Islanders.^[41] The term "Asians and Pacific Islanders" or "Asia/Pacific" was used on the 1990 US Census.^[42] However, in the 2000 US Census, many Pacific Islanders did not consider themselves the same social identity as Asians, and classified themselves separately.

Influential Asians

Only twenty-two people in the entire world have been repeatedly ranked among the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine and three of them are Asian (not counting West Asians). One is The Dalai Lama who made the Heroes & Icons section in 2005 & 2004. The other two are Kim Jong Il and Hu Jintao who both appeared on the list in 2005 and 2004 and whose influence was recognized in the Leaders & Revolution category.

Several other Asians have recently appeared on the list but only once. These include Yao Ming who was listed as among the Heroes & Icons in 2004, and Wu Yi who was recognized among the Leaders & Revolutionaries in 2004.

Several Time 100 members have come from India including B.K.S. Iyengar who was recognized as one of 2004’s Heroes & Icons, Aishwarya Rai, the only South Asian woman to ever make the list, who was recognized as an artist and entertainer in 2004, and in the Leaders & Revolutionaires category Manmohan Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee who made the list in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Pakistan’s leader Pervez Musharraf made the list in 2006.

Ashwarya Rai is not the only Asian entertainer to recently make the list. Zhang Ziyi and Rain both qualified in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

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