NGƯỜI VIỆT Ở HOA KỲ: VIETNAMESE POPULATION BY REGION

1. Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County CA CMSA – 233,573 people
2. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA CMSA – 146,613
3. Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, TX CMSA – 63,924
4. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX CMSA – 47,090
5. Washington D.C./VA/MD/WV PMSA – 43,709
6. Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton CMSA – 40,001
7. San Diego, CA MSA – 33,504
8. Boston-Worcester-Lawrence, MA CMSA – 31,325
9. Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City, PA/NJ/DE/MDCMSA -24,779
10. Atlanta, GA MSA – 23,996
11. Sacramento-Yolo, CA MSA – 18,170
12. Portland-Salem, OR CMSA – 17,799
13. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN MSA – 15,905
14. Chicago, IL PMSA – 15,894
15. New Orleans, LA MSA – 14,868
16. Denver-Boulder-Greeley, CO MSA – 13,885
17. New York City, NY PMSA – 12,040
18. Phoenix, AZ MSA – 10,176
19. Oklahoma City, OK MSA – 9,628
20. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA – 9,318
21. Austin-San Marcos, TX MSA – 8,641
22. Orlando FL, MSA – 7,621
23. Honolulu, HI MSA – 7,392
24. Wichita, KS MSA – 7,284
25. Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC MSA – 6,033
26. Stockton-Lodi, CA MSA – 6,032
27. Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland, MI MSA – 5,611
28. Saint Louis, MO-IL MSA – 5,537
29. Salt Lake City-Odgen, UT MSA – 5,531
30. Detroit-Flint-Ann Arbor, MIC MSA – 5,237
31. Kansas City, MO-KS MSA – 5,140
32. Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX MSA – 4,597
33. Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula, MS MSA – 4,264
34. Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL CMSA – 4,080
35. Greensboro-Winston Salem, NC MSA – 3,782
36. Lincoln, NE MSA – 3,774
37. Baton Rouge, LA MSA – 3,640
38. Baltimore, MD PMSA – 3,616
39. Hartford, CT MSA – 3,590
40. Las Vegas, NV MSA – 3,493
41. Ventura, CA PMSA – 3,308
42. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill MSA – 3,274
43. Memphis, TN MSA – 3,072
44. Richmond-Petersburg, VA MSA – 3,046
45. Norfolk-Virgina Beach-Newport News, VA MSA – 3,044
46. San Antonio, TX MSA – 2,973
47. Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, PA MSA – 2,649
48. Jacksonville, FL MSA – 2,630
49. Cleveland-Akron, OH CMSA – 2,625
50. Rochester, NY MSA – 2,603

Overseas Vietnamese (Vietnamese: Người Việt Hải Ngoại, which literally means “Overseas Vietnamese”, or Việt Kiều, a Sino-Vietnamese word literally translating to “Vietnamese sojourner”) refers to Vietnamese people living outside Vietnam in a diaspora. Of the about 3 million Overseas Vietnamese, about 300,000 left before 1975 (mainly to neighboring countries like Cambodia, or Western nations like France and the United States). 

Originally, the term “Việt Kiều” were used in Vietnam to identify members of the Vietnamese diaspora who return to Vietnam for visits or business before they’ve become legal citizens of the Western nations in which they have migrated to. In recent years, this term [Việt Kiều] has become a misnomer after the overwhelming majority of Overseas Vietnamese became permanent legal residents in other countries, and therefore no longer fits under the outdated “sojourner” label. Nevertheless, it is still a term often used erroneously in Vietnam’s state-run media when running stories about overseas Vietnamese, with complete disregard to their residency and citizenship status. The Overseas Vietnamese community itself rarely use this misnomer for self-identification, instead, most prefer the technically-correct term of Người Việt Hải Ngoại (literally translating to Overseas Vietnamese), or occasionally Người Việt Tự Do (Free Vietnamese). 

Vietnamese worldwide  

Overseas Vietnamese can be generally divided into four distinct categories that rarely interact with each other. The first category consists of people who have been living in territories outside of Vietnam prior to 1975; they usually reside in neighboring countries, such as Cambodia, Laos, and China. These people are not usually considered “Việt Kiều” by people residing in Vietnam. During French colonialism, some also migrated to France and some French-speaking areas, such as Québec. The second category, consisting of the vast majority of overseas Vietnamese, are those who escaped Vietnam after 1975 as refugees and their descendants. They usually reside in industrialized countries in North America, Western Europe, and Australia. The third category consists of Vietnamese working and studying in the Soviet bloc who opted to stay there after the Soviet collapse. This group is found mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. The last category consists of recent economic migrants who work in regional Asian countries such as Taiwan and Japan. They also include women who married men from Taiwan and South Korea through marriage agencies. These brides usually follow their husbands to live in those countries. 

United States

According to the 2000 census, more than 1.2 million people who are of Vietnamese origin live in the United States, constituting between a third to a half of all overseas Vietnamese. They tend to live in metropolitan areas in the West, especially in California and Texas. Significant areas where they are well-represented include Orange County, California, San Jose, California, and Houston, Texas. As almost all of them left Vietnam after 1975 to escape the communist Vietnamese government, they are generally antagonistic towards the current government of Vietnam. 

By 2005, the Vietnamese American population had grown to more than 1.6 million.