More than half of AAPI New Yorkers have considered leaving the city because of what it costs to live here. That figure, 55 percent, comes from the first city-level report in The Asian American Foundation's State of AAPIs research series, released July 28, 2026, and it reframes a conversation that usually gets filed under safety into one about money.
The survey covered 1,400 AAPI adults in New York City, conducted in February and March 2026 in English, Chinese, Korean, and Bengali, alongside interviews with more than 50 community leaders and secondary data from the Census, the Asian American Federation, and the NYPD.
What the TAAF report found about AAPI New Yorkers and cost of living
The economic picture is the sharpest part of the report:
- 55 percent have considered leaving NYC due to high cost of living, with young families, Manhattan residents, and lower-income respondents most likely to say so
- 59 percent struggled to save money or build financial security in the past year
- 53 percent rate their own economic stability as poor or fair
- 50 percent worry about affording essentials including food, housing, and utilities
- 49 percent struggle to find jobs matching their skills, and 48 percent see limited paths to advancement
More than half of Asian American households in New York City are rent burdened, meaning housing consumes an outsized share of income. Studio apartments in Queens now average north of $3,000 a month.
The model minority math does not work here
New York's AAPI population is roughly 1.4 million people, about 16 percent of the city, and the fastest growing racial or ethnic group in New York. As of 2024, around 68 percent of the city's Asian American population was foreign born.
Aggregate income statistics for that group look fine. They also mean almost nothing, because they average a software engineer in Long Island City against a home care worker in Sunset Park and report the midpoint as if it describes either one. The TAAF data breaks the aggregate apart, and the disaggregated numbers tell a different story depending on which community you ask.
Norman Chen, TAAF's chief executive, put it plainly in a statement: "AAPIs are too often treated as a monolith and a 'Model Minority.' This research reveals the genuine hardships and real concerns affecting millions."
The report includes the story of a 47-year-old woman of mixed Chinese and Japanese descent, identified as Ms. Morie, who moved to New York 13 years ago for work in film and television. She paid as little as $600 a month sharing a room with roommates. After repeated problems, she moved into a studio at $1,200 a month including utilities, well below market rate. Even at that price, rent consumed a third of her income.
Safety and belonging, measured separately
The report tracks discrimination alongside economics, and the two are connected in ways that a purely financial framing misses. Thirty-seven percent of respondents experienced mistreatment based on race or ethnicity in the past year, ranging from insults and harassment to physical attacks and unfair treatment by police. Forty-three percent changed their behavior because of that fear, carrying identification or avoiding law enforcement.
Fifty-eight percent expect to face discrimination over the next five years. Forty-six percent fear hate attacks. Fifty-two percent rate law enforcement's performance as poor or fair.
On belonging, 58 percent feel stereotyped or misunderstood, and 36 percent feel unwelcome in public spaces, a figure that rises to 42 percent on Staten Island. Forty-two percent feel they have little or no influence over local government. Language is a structural barrier throughout: 42 percent of Asian New Yorkers have limited English proficiency, compared with 23 percent citywide, which affects voting, immigration services, and daily life.
Why 67 percent still say New York is a city of opportunity
The most interesting number in the report is the one that cuts against the rest. Sixty-seven percent of respondents believe New York provides economic opportunity, with Bangladeshi and Indian respondents most likely to say it offers a great deal of it.
That is not a contradiction. It is what an immigrant calculation looks like when it is honest. People can hold, at the same time, that the city is where their work and community and future are, and that they are being priced out of it. The report captures both without resolving them, which is more useful than a cleaner finding would have been.
What this means for Flushing, Sunset Park, and Jackson Heights
The displacement pressure in this data lands hardest on the neighborhoods that made New York an Asian American city in the first place. Enclaves function as economic infrastructure, not just cultural ones. They are where a new arrival finds a job through someone from the same province, where a business gets started with informal credit, where language is not a barrier to seeing a doctor.
When rent pushes people out of those neighborhoods, the loss is not nostalgic. It is the removal of the mechanism that makes arrival survivable. The 55 percent considering departure are not contemplating a move to a cheaper apartment across town. Many are contemplating leaving the network entirely.
What comes next from TAAF
The New York report is the first in the series. TAAF has said it plans comparable city-level reports on Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, each with multilingual samples designed to represent the range of communities within the AAPI category rather than flattening them.
That methodological choice is the real contribution. For years the argument against AAPI-specific policy has rested on aggregate data showing a group doing fine. Disaggregated, longitudinal, city-level numbers make that argument harder to sustain.
Sources: AsAmNews reporting by Ian Chan, TAAF State of AAPIs NYC report.
