Asian or Asiatic people (the Asian Continental Ancestry Group)United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 2006.1 is a demonym for people from Asia. However, the use of the term varies by country and person, often referring to people from a particular region or subregion of Asia.Aspinall, Peter J. Oxford Journals. Journal of Public Health. 2003. October 26 2006. 2Lee, Sandra S. Mountain, Joanna. Barbara, Koening A. The Meanings of Race in the New Genomics: Implications for Health Disparities Research. Yale University. 2001. October 26 2006. 3 Though it may be based on residence, it is also often considered a raceBarnes, Jessica S. and Bennett, Claudett E. The Asian Population:2000. 2002. September 1 2006. 4 or an ethnicity.

In the United States, Canada, and Australia, the term refers most commonly to people of predominantly East Asian, South Asian, and Southeast Asian ancestry; however, in the United Kingdom and Anglophone Africa, the term refers most commonly to South Asians.Color Q World. Clarifying the Definition of Asian. 2005. October 1 2006. 5The New Oxford Dictionary of English. 2001. New York: Oxford University Press. In other countries, the term is applied to all people from Asia in general. In the US, however, Middle Eastern and Central Asian people are usually not considered Asian peoples.Lee, Sharon M. Population Reference Bureau. Asian Americans Diverse and Growing. 2006. September 10 2006. 6

United States

Earlier Census forms from 1980 and before listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups along with White and Black or Negro. Previously, Asian Americans were classified as "other". Lee, Gordon. Hyphen Magazine. "The Forgotten Revolution." 2003. January 28, 2007.7 But the 1980 census marked the first general analyses of Asians as a group, combining several individual ancestry groups into "Asian or Pacific Islander." By the 1990 census, Asian or Pacific Islander (API) was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry.