We are very pleased to bring you our ABC analysis of the top US cities for AMBW couples. For new readers, AMBW is short for Asian Men, Black Women couples. We will acknowledge at the outset that this is an ambitious article for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that AMBW couples are one of the least frequent pairings of all interracial couples. AMBW married couples for example are less than 0.1% of all American households. Indeed, despite the title of this article, we want to be absolutely clear with our readers – there are no perfect cities for AMBW couples today for many reasons which we will not cover here. However, at the same time, there are cities that have much higher than average concentrations of AMBW couples and these are the cities that we will seek to find in this article. As is our usual style, we will bring you lots of facts and data to support this analysis and we hope you find it insightful. For those looking for a similar analysis for BMAW couples, check out this article.

In the cover photo are some of our favorite AMBW Youtubers. Clockwise from the upper left are: Rich (AKA Bruce), Chinese American and his wife Kerry (AKA Marley), Jamaican-American from the Bruce Marley YouTube channel; Tyler, Korean American, and Vmarie (AKA Vonnette), Jamaican-American from the Vmarie401 YouTube channel; Sam, Korean American, and his girlfriend Lily, biracial African American and White from the Sam and Lily Lee YouTube channel; and Zhe, Chinese American, and his girlfriend Renee, African American from the Blasian Quest YouTube channel. Check them all out!

Data and Methodology

Our regular ABC readers know that we tap the US Census records and slice and dice that data in ways that few others have ever done when it comes to Asian and Black couples.

This article will use census data from 2010 through 2015, the latest census data available.

This article will incorporate nationwide married Asian and Black census data that was crunched by ABC specifically for this article. To our knowledge, no other group has ever crunched married Blasian couple census data in this level of detail. Unlike most census data which is compiled into neat tables by the US Census Bureau, the census data for married couples requires a significant amount of compiling and computation.

This article mainly looks at AMBW married couples in the US census data. This will include all men over the age of 20 who marked themselves as Asian, even if they were mixed – who were married to any woman over the age of 20 who marked themselves as Black, even if they were mixed. Sometimes the people who were mixed did a good job of describing their mix and sometimes they didn’t, but in any event, we used whatever level of detail they provided.

As we normally do, we include both Asian and Pacific Islander in our expanded definition of Asian people in all of our calculations.

For places, we analyzed all data at the county level within the states which provides a little more detail than using the metropolitan statistical area data we have used in the past. If the name of the largest city within that county is not readily apparent from the name of the county, we also show the largest city in that county.

Before we hop into the data, let’s talk about two caveats first:

Again, there are no ideal places for AMBW couples. Pretty much every way you cut the data, AMBW couple statistics make up far less than 1% of the comparable US statistics. This will change in time given the growth of Blasian couples, but for now, we are mainly looking at the places where the various AMBW couple statistics we track are more concentrated than other places. Being on any of the lists in this article does not mean that all or even most of the Asian men in these places will be receptive to dating Black women, or that all or even most of the Black women in these places will be receptive to dating Asian guys. Instead, being on these lists just means that compared to all other places in the US, these are the places with the highest concentration of AMBWs on that particular statistic.

For AMBW relationships in the US, Asian men from the Caribbean show a higher comfort and likelihood of marrying in AMBW relationships than Asian men from Asia and this difference heavily influences some of the data. As a result, in a few places we break out Caribbean-born Asians from other Asians to highlight the differences.

Below are the 4 statistics and sources that we analyze to determine the top 10 US cities for AMBW couples.

A) Number of Married AMBW Couples Here we examine US Census PUMS data for all AMBW married couples across all US counties. Larger sized counties like some of the west count counties have a slight advantage on this statistic. Only 11% of all US counties have any married AMBW couples, and only 20 US counties have 300 or more married AMBW couples. Since we are only interested in the places with the highest concentration of AMBW couples, we restrict the bulk of our analysis to only these 20 counties with at least 300 married AMBW couples.

B) Concentration of Married AMBW Couples This US Census PUMS statistic looks at married AMBW households as a percentage of total households in the county. This tells us how concentrated AMBW households are in every county.

C) Percent of Asian Men Married To Black Women This statistic also derived from US Census data examines the percentage of Asian men age 20 or older in the county married to Black women. This gives us a sense of the openness of Asian men to Black women in every county.

D) Concentration of Blasians to Total Population This US Census data statistic examines the percentage of Blasian people of all ages to the total population in the county. Blasian couples have Blasian kids, so this statistic tells us how many other Blasians these Blasian kids might be able to relate to or have as role models in each county.

E) Composite Ranking Across All The Stats This composite ranking compares every US county to the best performing county on every stat and gives a composite ranking across all the stats for each county.



Rankings By AMBW Statistic

In this section, we will look at the county rankings for each statistic.

Number of Married AMBW Couples By US County

Number of Married AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County # Married AMBW Couples 1 Queens-NYC, NY 1,700 2 Los Angeles County, CA 1,340 3 Broward County, FL (Fort Lauderdale) 900 4 Brooklyn-NYC, NY 640 5 Fulton County, GA (Atlanta) 620 6 Miami-Dade County, FL 460 7 Palm Beach County, FL (West Palm Beach) 440 7 San Diego County, CA 440 9 Orange County, FL (Orlando) 420 10 Bronx-NYC, NY 400 US County Average 8.5

ABC is proud to be the first group to publish the top 10 list of number of married AMBW couples by county in the US. This data sits uncompiled in the US census data and takes quite a bit of computational analysis to compile it, but we will spare you the details on this. Unlike BMAW married couples where west coast cities predominate the list, with AMBW married couples, east coast cities predominate the list accounting for 8 of the top 10 spots. Queens-NYC has more married AMBW couples by a wide margin, with Brooklyn-NYC and Bronx-NYC also making the top 10. Florida has 4 cities on the top 10 with the Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach, and Orlando areas all making the top 10. Asian men from the Caribbean (particularly East Indians and Chinese), are more likely to marry Black women than Asian men from Asia, and Asian men from the Caribbean are found in large numbers in NYC and Florida.

Concentration of Married AMBW Couples

Concentration of Married AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County Married AMBW Couples per 100K Households 1 Queens-NYC, NY 218 2 Fulton County, GA (Atlanta) 166 3 Broward County, FL (Fort Lauderdale) 135 4 Prince George’s County, MD (Bowie) 111 5 Honolulu County, HI 103 6 Orange County, FL (Orlando) 99 7 Contra Costa County, CA (Concord) 89 8 Bronx-NYC, NY 83 8 Palm Beach County, FL (West Palm Beach) 83 10 Brooklyn-NYC, NY 69 US Average 23

Next, we look at the places with the highest concentration of married AMBW couples. This statistic really puts things into perspective with AMBW couples. Across the US, married AMBW couples only average a very rare 23 couples per every 100,000 households. Only 5 places have more than 100 married AMBW couples per 100,000 households with Queens-NYC leading the list at a concentration of 218 married AMBW couples. Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Prince George’s county MD (Bowie), and Honolulu round out the top 5 on this statistic, each with over 100 married AMBW couples per 100,000 households.

Percent of Asian Men Married To Black Women

Percent of Asian Men Married To Black Women Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County % of Asian Men Married To Black Women 1 Broward County, FL (Fort Lauderdale) 3.60% 2 Palm Beach County, FL (West Palm Beach) 3.27% 3 Fulton County, GA (Atlanta) 3.07% 4 Miami-Dade County, FL 2.44% 5 Prince George’s County, MD (Bowie) 2.40% 6 Bronx-NYC, NY 1.83% 7 Orange County, FL (Orlando) 1.80% 8 Queens-NYC, NY 0.84% 9 Nassau County, NY (Hempstead) 0.80% 10 San Bernardino County, CA 0.68% US Average 0.39%

On the list of counties with the highest percentage of Asian men married to Black women, while the US average is a very low 0.39%, it is interesting to see that 7 places are well over 1% on this statistic. The common denominator for all 7 places is a fair mix of Asian men from the Caribbean. In fact, this is true for all of the cities on this list except San Bernardino, CA. With Asian men from the Caribbean, they are clearly more comfortable interacting with Black women given their exposure to Blacks in the Caribbean.

Concentration Of Blasians To Total Population

Concentration of Blasians to Total Population Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County Blasians per 100K Population 1 Honolulu County, HI 507 2 Queens-NYC, NY 434 3 Broward County, FL (Fort Lauderdale) 328 4 Sacramento County, CA 290 5 Prince George’s County, MD (Bowie) 252 6 Contra Costa County, CA (Concord) 228 7 Clark County, NV (Las Vegas) 220 8 Orange County, FL (Orlando) 213 9 Brooklyn-NYC, NY 208 10 San Diego County, CA 199 US Average 79

This statistic looks at Blasians of all ages compared to the total population. About 45% of all Blasians are under the age of 18, so there is a fair degree of correlation between the concentration of Blasians and the concentration of married Blasian couples, both BMAW and AMBW. The logic for including this statistic is that it’s helpful for AMBW couples to have other Blasians in the area for AMBW families with kids, both as peers as well as potential role models.

Overall Ranking – Top 10 US Cities for AMBW Couples

Overall Ranking – Top 10 US Cities For AMBW Couples Source: AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County Overall Score 1 Queens-NYC, NY 52.5 2 Broward County, FL (Fort Lauderdale) 47.5 3 Fulton County, GA (Atlanta) 38.3 4 Palm Beach County, FL (West Palm Beach) 32.3 5 Prince George’s County, MD (Bowie) 31.9 6 Honolulu County, HI 28.8 7 Orange County, FL (Orlando) 27.5 8 Miami-Dade County, FL 26.7 9 Bronx-NYC, NY 25.7 10 Brooklyn -NYC, NY 21.7 10 Los Angeles County, CA 21.7 US Average 10.0

Putting it all together and the top place for AMBW couples in the entire US is Queens-NYC. Queens, which is 26% Asian and 18% Black, has the most married AMBW couples of any place in the US, both by number and by percentage. Also not surprising, Queens which also has the second highest number of married BMAW couples in the country, has one of the highest number of Blasians relative to other places in the US. Again, all of these are all relative numbers, so it’s possible that you may live in Queens and never see an AMBW couple given the very small percentages we are dealing with, however despite the small percentages, at this moment in time, Queens scores higher than any other place in the US on AMBW related statistics. Indeed, on average across all of the AMBW related statistics we reviewed, if the average US city scored x, then Queens would score 5.25x on average on that same statistic, which is how we derived the overall composite scores for each place. It’s also worth noting that Queens neighbors, Bronx-NYC (#9), and Brooklyn-NYC (#10 tie) also make the top 10 overall listing. See our article on Asian and Black Marriages in New York for more details.

Four Florida areas make the top 10, Fort Lauderdale (#2), West Palm Beach (#4), Orlando (#7), and Miami (#8). All four of these places have relatively small Asian communities with Orlando having the most Asians at 5.4% and Miami having the fewest Asians at 1.6%, however each of these places have a rich mix of Asian men from the Caribbean who tend to marry Black women at a higher rate which propels all four cities to the overall top 10 listing. Indeed Asian Caribbean men make up more than half of the married AMBW couples in each of these cities with Miami at 91% Asian Caribbean men, West Palm Beach at 86%, Fort Lauderdale at 80%, and Orlando at 62%. More on this below.

Atlanta at #3 on the overall list, has a growing Asian population now at 7% of the area’s population, and ahead of the overall US Asian population percentage at 5%. Atlanta sees a relatively high number of married AMBWs with both Asian men from the Caribbean, as well as with Asian men from South Asia – India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in particular. We are reminded of Mariah, African American, and Dr. Aydin Huq, Bangladeshi, from Atlanta and the television reality show, Married to Medicine with this statistic.

Prince George’s County in Maryland (#5) outside of DC, known for being one of the most affluent majority Black counties in the US, has about 4.5% Asians and sees the bulk of its married AMBW couples with Asian Caribbean men and Filipino men.

Finally, the west coast only has two cities on the overall top 10 list – Honolulu (#6) and Los Angeles (#10 tie). Honolulu, as you might expect has the bulk of it’s married AMBW relationships with Pacific Islander men and Filipino men. Los Angeles has the greatest diversity of married AMBW couples with Filipino, East Indian, Chinese, Pacific Islander, and Japanese men all showing up frequently in LA married AMBW couples. See our previous article on Asian and Black Married Couples in California for more details.

Married AMBW Couple Clusters By Ethnicity

Lastly, in this section we look at all of the major clusters of married AMBW couples in the US, where a cluster is any county with at least an estimated 60 of that type of AMBW couples. We distinguish Asian Caribbeans from other Asians for Chinese and East Indians to see if there is a difference in their respective clusters.

Number of Married East Indian Caribbean AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County # Married East Indian Caribbean AMBW Couples 1 Queens-NYC, NY 1280 2 Broward Cty, FL (Fort Lauderdale) 300 3 Palm Beach County, FL (West Palm Beach) 240 4 Bronx-NYC, NY 220 4 Brooklyn-NYC, NY 220 6 Orange County, FL (Orlando) 160 7 Nassau County, NY (Hempstead) 140 8 Essex County, NJ (Newark) 120 9 Fulton County, GA (Atlanta) 100 10 Harris County, TX (Houston) 80 10 Prince George’s County, MD (Bowie) 80 10 Suffolk County, NY (Brookhaven) 80 10 Westchester County, NY (Yonkers) 80 14 Dallas County, TX 60 14 Duval County, FL (Jacksonville) 60 14 Miami-Dade County, FL 60 14 Middlesex County, NJ (Edison) 60

Number of Married East Indian AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County # Married East Indian AMBW Couples 1 Los Angeles County, CA 120 1 Queens-NYC, NY 120 3 Fairfax County, VA (Herndon) 80 4 Middlesex County, NJ ( Edison) 60 4 Westchester County, NY (Yonkers) 60 4 Cook County, IL (Chicago) 60

Number of Married Chinese Caribbean AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County # Married Chinese Caribbean AMBW Couples 1 Broward County, FL (Fort Lauderdale) 420 2 Miami-Dade County, FL 360 3 Brooklyn-NYC, NY 140 3 Palm Beach County, FL (West Palm Beach) 140 5 Fulton County, GA (Atlanta) 100 5 Los Angeles County, CA 100 5 Orange County, FL (Orlando) 100 8 Nassau County, NY (Hempstead) 80 9 Bronx-NYC, NY 60 9 Queens-NYC, NY 60 9 Hartford County, CT 60 9 Hillsborough County, FL (Tampa Bay) 60 9 Lee County, FL (Cape Coral) 60 9 Philadelphia County, PA 60 9 Pinellas County, FL (Clearwater) 60 9 St. Lucie County, FL (Port St. Lucie) 60 9 Suffolk County, NY (Brookhaven) 60

Number of Married Chinese AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County # Married Chinese AMBW Couples 1 Los Angeles County, CA 140 1 Queens-NYC, NY 140 3 Alameda County, CA (Oakland) 80 4 Brooklyn-NYC, NY 60 4 Clark County, NV (Las Vegas) 60 4 Contra Costa County, CA (Concord) 60 4 San Francisco County, CA 60

Looking at the largest clusters of Asian Caribbean married AMBWs and non-Caribbean Asian married AMBWs for both East Indians and Chinese, it’s clear that there are more and larger AMBW clusters with Asian men from the Caribbean than the corresponding clusters with East Indian and Chinese men from Asia or elsewhere. This again shows the significant influence that Asian men from the Caribbean have on married AMBW stats in the US.

Number of Married Filipino AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County # Married Filipino AMBW Couples 1 Los Angeles County, CA 220 2 San Diego County, CA 180 3 Contra Costa County, CA (Concord) 140 4 Clark County, NV (Las Vegas) 100 4 Sacramento County, CA 100 6 Fulton County, GA (Atlanta) 80 6 Honolulu County, HI 80 6 Orange County, CA (Anaheim) 80 6 Prince George’s County, MD (Bowie) 80 6 San Bernardino County, CA 80 11 Alameda County, CA (Oakland) 60 11 Cook County, IL (Chicago) 60 11 Fairfax County, VA (Herndon) 60 11 King County, WA (Seattle) 60 11 NYC Metro, NY 60 11 Virginia Beach County, VA 60

Number of Married Pacific Islander AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County # Married Pacific Islander AMBW Couples 1 Honolulu County, HI 140 2 Los Angeles County, CA 140 3 Santa Clara County, CA (San Jose) 80 4 Clark County, NV (Las Vegas) 60 4 Orange County, CA (Anaheim) 60

Number of Married Japanese AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County # Married Japanese AMBW Couples 1 Los Angeles County, CA 120 2 Santa Clara County, CA (San Jose) 80 3 NYC Metro, NY 60 3 San Mateo County, CA (Daly City) 60 3 King County, WA (Seattle) 60

When we look at the largest clusters of married AMBW couples with Filipino, Pacific Islander, and Japanese men, the vast majority of them are on the west coast, which is a big contrast to the Asian Caribbean married AMBW couple clusters we reviewed earlier. At the same time however, the numbers in these clusters are generally much less than the numbers in the clusters involving Asian Caribbean men.

Number of Married Other AMBW Couples By US County Source: US Census Data Crunched by AsianBlackCouples.com Rank US County Ethnicity # Married AMBW Couples 1 NYC Metro, NY Korean 120 2 Fulton County, GA (Atlanta) Pakistani 80 3 Brooklyn-NYC, NY Pakistani 60 3 Harris County, TX (Houston) Korean 60 3 Los Angeles County, CA Thai 60 3 NYC Metro, NY Indonesian 60 3 Orange County, CA (Anaheim) Korean 60 3 San Bernardino, CA Vietnamese 60

With married AMBW couples, East Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Pacific Islanders, and Japanese are the Asian men most frequently married to Black women, however we also found eight other clusters of married AMBW couples representing Korean, Thai, Indonesian, and Vietnamese men. There are indeed many other married AMBW couples with Asian men not mentioned in these clusters such as Cambodians, Malaysians, and Nepalis, but their lack of mention here just means that we did not find any counties in the US where there were more than 60 married AMBWs of that ethnicity.

SUMMARY

We are fully aware that AMBW couples today are often trailblazers, no matter where they live. However, we also think that knowledge is power and the more we know about these small number of AMBW clusters around the country – no matter how small or dispersed they might be – the better decisions everyone involved or considering being involved in AMBW relationships can make. We also believe that AMBW couples will grow exponentially in the future – see our article on AMBW online and offline groups – and that inevitably, some of the places with higher concentrations of AMBWs that we identified here will lead the way, while other places that are not on our radar today, will also become places with large clusters of AMBW couples in the future.

Finally, we are struck by the fact that Asian men involved in AMBW marriages were 38% born in the US, 31% born in the Caribbean/Latin America, and 26% born in Asia. We think this is great for Black women interested in Asian men because it means you have options if you are open to them. Can’t find Asian men in your neighborhood, look for Asian men in other US cites. Can’t find Asian men in America, look for Asian men from the Caribbean. Can’t find Asian men from the Caribbean, look for Asian men from Asia. Location matters and with the world being as connected as it is today through the internet, free messaging apps, free video conferencing apps, email, and cheap airline tickets, distance does not necessarily need to be an impediment to your happiness. Be smart and be careful, but own the direction of your future instead of just accepting whatever options your local neighborhood might present.

We wish everyone all the best and many blessings!