A few months ago, the U.S. Census Bureau released its American Community Survey for 2007. It's a great database, and I was able to search it to find out that U.S. residents of Chinese descent make up nearly 3.5 million or about 1.2 percent of the U.S. population.

Residents of Chinese descent make up the largest portion of Asians in the United States, followed by those of Filipino descent who make up about 3 million. States with the largest Chinese-American populations include California, New York, and Hawaii. See visualization below.

Here are some other fascinating figures from that report:

1.3 million Chinese-Americans were born in the United States. 2.2 million were born abroad.

Of those born abroad, 97.2 percent were born in Asia, followed by 1.7 percent who were born in Latin America.

52 percent of Chinese Americans are female, 48 are male.

Chinese-Americans between 35-44 make up the largest age group, followed by the 45-54 and the 25-34 age groups.

59 percent of Chinese Americans are married, compared to 50.2 percent of the entire U.S. population.

24.6 percent of the Chinese-American population over age 25 has a graduate degree, compared to 10.1 percent of the entire U.S. population.

76.3 percent of Chinese Americans speak a language other than English at home, while 23.7 percent speak English only at home.

59.4 percent drive to work, compared to 76.1 percent of the entire U.S. population.

15.3 percent take public transportation, compared to 4.9 percent of the entire U.S. population.