This article discusses Chinatowns in the Americas, urban areas with a large population of people of Chinese descent.

Prior to 1900, almost all Chinese were located in British Columbia, in towns such as Nanaimo, New Westminster, Mission, Lillooet, Barkerville, and Penticton.

The New York metropolitan area contains the largest ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia,[7][8] comprising an estimated 893,697 uniracial individuals as of 2017,[9] including at least 12 Chinatowns - six[10] (or nine, including the emerging Chinatowns in Corona and Whitestone, Queens,[11] and East Harlem, Manhattan) in New York City proper, and one each in Nassau County, Long Island; Edison, New Jersey;[11] and Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, not to mention fledgling ethnic Chinese enclaves emerging throughout the New York City metropolitan area.

[17] A Pacific port city, San Francisco has the oldest and longest continuous running Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere.

[18][19][20] It originated circa 1848 and served as a gateway for incoming immigrants who arrived during the California gold rush and the construction of the North American transcontinental railroads.

[22] Looming large were proposals by real estate speculators and politicians to expand the Financial District's influence into the area, by displacing the Chinese community to the southern part of the city.

In response, many of Chinatown's residents and landlords defiantly stayed behind to stake their neighborhood's claim, sleeping out in the open and in makeshift tents.

Numerous businesses and housing based in brick buildings survived with moderate damage and continued functioning, if only in a limited capacity.

[18][19][20] Still a community of predominantly Taishanese-speaking inhabitants, San Francisco's Chinatown became one of the most important Chinese centers in the United States.

[23][24] Chinatowns in Latin America (Spanish: barrios chinos, singular barrio chino / Portuguese: bairros chineses, singular bairro chinês) developed with the rise of Chinese immigration in the 19th century to various countries in Latin America as contract laborers (i.e., indentured servants) in agricultural and fishing industries.

Latin American Chinatowns may include the descendants of original migrants — often of mixed Chinese and Latino parentage — and more recent immigrants from East Asia.