What more detailed data can tell us about AAPI communities
Numbers can tell us a lot about a community. But sometimes, the most useful question is what happens when we look more closely.
A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston offers a detailed look at family wealth across Massachusetts. The 2025 Massachusetts Economic Conditions and Household Opportunity Survey, or Mass ECHOS, surveyed more than 5,000 households and estimated median family net wealth at $374,000 statewide. For Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander families combined, the reported median was $305,000.
A median tells us the midpoint of a group. It does not show how wealth is distributed within that group, or whether different families within that group are experiencing very different economic realities.
The Boston Fed’s findings also show why that distinction matters. Among AANHPI families surveyed, the median was $305,000, but wealth was considerably lower at the bottom of the distribution: at the 25th percentile, family net wealth was $14,200.
That is especially important in Massachusetts, where AAPI communities include people with different histories, immigration experiences, languages, generations, economic circumstances, and needs. A statewide figure that combines those communities can give us a useful starting point. It cannot, on its own, show us how experiences differ from one community to another.
Research has shown why this can be particularly important when looking at Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. Broad racial categories can obscure differences in income, wealth, educational attainment, health, and other measures. Angie Liou, who served on the Boston Fed’s Community Advisory Council for Mass ECHOS, has also noted that the broad AANHPI category can make it difficult to see the significant differences among the communities it includes.
AAPIC has experienced the value of looking more closely firsthand.
In 2025, AAPIC partnered on the No Longer Invisible: Massachusetts APIA Community Survey, which gathered more than 1,400 responses and produced disaggregated findings for Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese Americans. The survey offered a closer look at experiences within the broader APIA population—and showed what becomes possible when communities are represented in more specific ways.
Now, AAPIC has joined the Data Equity Working Group and is learning alongside partners about data equity and data disaggregation. This work is helping AAPIC consider how more detailed information can strengthen our understanding of Massachusetts’ diverse AAPI communities and inform the work ahead.
For AAPIC, the question is straightforward:
Are we seeing our communities clearly?
We are exploring what it will take to answer that question—and how better data can help Massachusetts better understand the people and communities it serves.
Read the Boston Fed’s Family Wealth in Massachusetts report →
