Asian Pacific Americans

Asian/Pacific American (APA) or Asian/Pacific Islander (API) or Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) or Asian American and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) is a term sometimes used in the United States when including both Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs defined Asian-Pacific Islander as "A person with origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East (i.e. East and Southeast Asia), Indian subcontinent, or the Pacific Islands." The National Park Service says AAPI 'history and heritage include experiences of people with cultural, religious, and linguistic traditions' from countries like China, India, and Japan. The category also encompasses people from areas such as the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Samoa, Thailand, and Vietnam; and in South Asia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan. Indigenous Australians are included as they fall under the Pacific Islander American umbrella, along with the separate Australian native group of Torres Strait Islanders, who are considered Melenasians. Indigenous peoples of the Aleutian Islands do not fall within the APA category, due to being considered Alaskan Natives rather than Pacific Islander Americans.

The APA category does not include people of European origin from the Pacific, such as those from Australia, Hawaii, New Zealand, Ecuador's Galápagos Islands and Russia's Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. It also does not include Russians of European origin from the Far East Asian regions of the country.