Asian people

[3] In parts of anglophone Africa, especially East Africa and in parts of the Caribbean, the term "Asian" is more commonly associated with people of South Asian origin, particularly Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans.

[5] East Asians in South Africa, including Chinese were classified either as Coloureds or as honorary whites.

[11] New Zealand's census undertaken by Statistics New Zealand defines Asian to include people of Bangladeshi, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan, Cambodian and Thai ancestries.

[23] Earlier Census forms from 1980 and prior listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups along with White and Black or Negro.

By the 1990 census, Asian or Pacific Islander (API) was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry.

[26][27][28] The 2000 and 2010 U.S. Census Bureau definition of the Asian race is: "people having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent (for example, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam)".

[29] Sandra S. Lee et al. (2001) said, in regards to the categories of the 2000 U.S. census, that it is difficult to determine why Asian Americans are a "race" while Latino and Hispanic are an "ethnic group."

Lee said that people of South Asian origin were categorically identified as "Hindu," regardless of their religion, in the early 20th century.

[31] Sociologist Madhulika Khandelwal described how "....as a result of activism, South Asians came to be included as 'Asians' in the census only in the 80's.