(STAT News) – They have roots in 50 countries that cover more than half of the globe’s surface. They make up more than 60% of the world’s population. They speak more than 100 different languages. Yet in medical research and public health in the United States, people with Asian ancestry are almost always grouped into a single racial category.

Nearly 25 million Americans — from Hmong to Laotians, and Koreans to Indonesians — have been given the same label by the U.S. government despite coming from vastly different cultural, linguistic, and genetic backgrounds. (Read More)