Where do Asian-Americans live in Chicago area? (Naperville, Schaumburg: neighborhoods, to live in)

[f1000]

I'm Asian-American and have only lived in Southern CA, SF and Seattle. Was wondering where the Asians tend to live in the Chicago area, outside of the Chinatown area. I remember that there was not too much of an Asian presence up there when I visited a few yrs ago. Am visiting Chicago again in a cpl weeks so would like to visit some of the Asian neighborhoods if there are any?

I was recently in Houston- posted here about whether I'd stick out as a sore thumb there- went and was surprised by how racially diverse Houston is. I think it's more than Chicago, at least in terms of Asian presence?

[marothisu]

There's a ton of Asians in Chicago but many are spread out and don't necessarily live in many "enclaves." To start with, the area around Argyle Red Line stop is Little Vietnam. The old Koreatown is in Albany Park and is still around 15% Asian. Lincoln Square is like 12% Asian still near Uptown (argyle). There is actually a lot of Asians in Bridgeport, close to Chinatown as well.

There's a lot in the northern suburbs actually. A lot of Koreans actually moved to close suburbs and you can find a lot of the stuff there. Glenview, Schaumburg, Niles, Carol Stream, Morton Grove, Des Plaines, etc all have sizable Asian communities in them.

A lot though don't necessarily band together though. There's asians in many, many neighborhoods of Chicago. Now, there are clubs and stuff where Asians tend to hang out more..I do know that.

[Irishtom29]

East Indians and Pakistanis along Devon east of western and Arabs in Albany Park and Lincoln Square. There's an Afghan restaurant in Lincoln Square but I haven't encountered any Afghans, many Koreans in Lincoln Square too, I've also encountered Israelis in Lincoln Square and on Devon west of California. Many Chinese are assimilated and they pop up all over the place.

There seem to be some Turks and Persians in Albany Park.

[easherly]

There are some Asian community centers and churches, Korean supermarkets, and various Asian restaurants in the city of Naperville. The people who hang out there are not necessarily Asian American but moreso first generation immigrants. I don't know of any neighborhoods that are heavily Asian in population out in the suburbs, however.

[emathias]

Part of the reason you don't see as many is simply that Chicago's percentage asian population is lower than SoCal, SF and Seattle.

Fully 1/3 of San Francisco residents are asian according to the 2010 census. Nearly 17% of Seattle is asian, 16% in San Diego, over 10% in Los Angeles.

For the city of Chicago, the asian population is only slightly above 5% (nationally the U.S. is about 4.8% asian), and in Chicago a higher percentage of those are South Asian instead of East Asian, so the East Asian population appears even smaller. However the county that Chicago is in, Cook County, has an asian population of 6.2% of the population. Since the City of Chicago makes up about half of Cook County's population, that means that for the non-Chicago part of Cook County the asian population is probably closer to 7.4%. So the answer to your question is that the suburbs are more asian than Chicago is.

So the fact of the matter is just that Chicago doesn't have very many East Asians relative to the West Coast or even Houston (although Houston only has 5.3% asian population overall, so is more comparable than San Francisco).

The Northwest suburbs (Elk Grove, Schaumburg sorts of areas) tend to be more East Asian, the near-north suburbs (Skokie, Niles and nearby) tend to be more South Asian.

Then you get into other suburban counties. DuPage County, which is west of Chicago and surrounded on two sides (north and east) by Cook County is 10% asian - about 5% East Asian specifically. Lake County, the one north of Cook County, is only 3.9% asian. So, basically, the biggest chunk of East Asians in the Chicago area live in suburban Cook County and Dupage County, but in the suburbs they tend to be pretty integrated and not cloistered into ethnic communities.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

There seem to be some Turks and Persians in Albany Park.

Also North Center/Roscoe Village. At least food wise...and some central asian (i.e. Uzbek) too.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Also North Center/Roscoe Village. At least food wise...and some central asian (i.e. Uzbek) too.

I heard that Uzbek restaurant is good. Have you been?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

I heard that Uzbek restaurant is good. Have you been?

Lazzat? Nope. I just heard about it the other day but also heard it's good..

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Lazzat? Nope. I just heard about it the other day but also heard it's good..

Actually I was talking about jibek jolu. My mistake, it's Kyrgyz.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by emathias

Part of the reason you don't see as many is simply that Chicago's percentage asian population is lower than SoCal, SF and Seattle.

Bingo. I was wondering how many posts before somebody would admit this. There are absolutely not "tons of Asians" in Chicago, percentage-wise, even compared to the national average and particularly compared to the locations the OP has lived in.