LOCAL

Austin’s Asian community outnumbers Black residents for first time, Census data show

Philip Jankowski

A new home goes up next to a much older -- and smaller -- house in East Austin. As gentrification continues in parts of Austin, the city is seeing more Black and Hispanic residents moving to the suburbs, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

For the first time in the history of Austin, Asian American residents now outnumber Black people in the city, according to the latest information from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The data from the bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey show that Austin is now home to 80,117 Asian people, compared to 76,480 Black residents. Austin’s Asian community is now the second-largest in the state behind only Houston, a city more than twice the size of Texas’ capital.

The American Community Survey population estimates are based on data collected before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest numbers show an abrupt about-face in the growth of Black residents living in Austin. From 2010 to 2018, the number of Black residents grew 29% from 63,504 residents to 82,148, outpacing the city’s overall growth in population over that same period, along with increases in Latino and white segments of the population. The 2019 numbers show a sudden decrease of nearly 5,700 Black residents.

“I think it is fairly obvious and fairly predictable,” said Nelson Linder, president of Austin’s local NAACP. “Central Austin and what used to be East Austin are no longer an option for Black people in the city.”

Meanwhile, the city’s Asian population has grown 71% since 2010 -- and that community’s wages have increased sharply to a median income of $95,000, the highest among all demographics.

Marina Ong Bhargava, chief executive of the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce, said she was not surprised by the increases given the overall population trends of Austin’s Asian community in recent years as well as the city’s growth as a technology center.

“It is driven by the kind of jobs that are being created in Austin,” Bhargava said. “More recently, we have become a much bigger tech center, and if you look at tech industry, Asians are over represented in IT, engineers especially and of course in health care as well — a lot of the STEM fields. For reasons I cannot explain, America is not producing enough of those skills and so we end up importing those.”

The data also show a widening gap in median income between the top earning racial demographic groups, whites and Asians, and Black and Latino workers. The median income of a white worker rose about $30,000, compared to about $20,000 for Hispanic and Black workers.

While the Black community’s share of of Austin’s overall population has continued to shrink, Black populations in many of Austin’s suburbs have grown dramatically.

The number of Black people living in Round Rock has grown 60% since 2010, according to the latest Census Bureau numbers. In Georgetown, it has nearly quadrupled. Manor and Pflugerville also saw increases in Black residents far outpacing the overall growth of those cities.

“People are going to follow opportunities,” Linder said. “What opportunities do we have to increase our income here in Austin? None.”

Growth in Austin’s Hispanic community has also been sluggish and outpaced by the city’s overall growth. While that community remains the largest minority community in Austin by far, it has seen a decrease in the in its overall share of the city at large, declining by 10.3% since 2010.

Suburbs such as Cedar Park, Manor and Pflugerville also saw sharp increases in their Hispanic populations, according to Census data.

“We are starting to see what was happening with the African American community happen to the Latino community, because of affordability issues and gentrification,” said Paul Saldaña, co-founder of Hispanic Advocates Business Leaders of Austin and a former school board member for the Austin Independent School District

Overall it means that Austin -- whose political leadership generally prides itself on inclusiveness -- is a whiter city that it was nearly 10 years ago.

Reductions in Austin’s Black and Hispanic communities are “inevitable until we have people in the office willing to take on the issue,” Linder said. “Until you address the core cause of the problem, it won’t change. And they know that.”

Austin’s population

Total - 979,263
White - 477,688
Non-white Hispanic - 318,016
Asian American - 79,536
Black - 72,344
Two or more races - 27,575
Native American - 2,796
Pacific Islander - 48
Other - 1,260
Source: U.S. Census Bureau

A biker peddles past a newly constructed condo on Rosewood Avenue in Austin on Dec. 31, 2019. From 2010 to 2018, the number of Black residents in Austin grew 29% from 63,504 residents to 82,148. The 2019 numbers show a sudden decrease of nearly 5,700 Black residents, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.