The term 'Asian American' is often used to refer to residents of the United States who are descendants of people from the Far East (e.g., China, Korea, and Japan), Southeast Asia (e.g., the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), the Indian subcontinent (e.g., India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), and certain Asian ethnic groups, such as the Hmong people. There are at least 24 separate Asian American ethnic groups in the United States, and Pacific Islanders (e.g., Hawaiians, Samoans, and Guamanians) are often categorized separately from Asian Americans. Asian Americans make up approximately 5% of the population in the United States and are the fastest growing ethnic population. About 69% of Asian Americans are foreign born, with Japanese Americans being the only group where the majority was born in the United States. Some groups such as the Chinese and Japanese have a long history of voluntary immigration to the United States and tend to have higher socioeconomic attainment, whereas other groups such as the Hmong, Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians include more recent refugees with relatively lower median incomes. These demographic descriptions reveal the heterogeneity of the Asian American population, but despite these differences, similarities among several of the Asian American groups do exist. This article will attempt to highlight similarities that can occur at the sociocultural, interpersonal, and individual levels and ways in which these factors might impact the development of Asian American body images. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)