Asians are the fastest growing race group in the United States, reflecting a surge in immigration from the entire region over a decade, according to the Census Bureau.

The third largest Asian group after the Chinese (four million), followed by Filipinos (3.4 million) and Asian Indians (3.2 million). The 2010 Census Data shows that number of people who identified themselves as Aisan alone.

That was more than four times faster than the rate of growth for the overall US population, which grew 9.7 percent in the same period to 308,745,538, a census bureau official told reporters in a conference call Wednesday.

Some 14.7 million people, or 4.8 percent of the total population, identified themselves as Asian alone. Another 2.6 million, or 0.9 percent, said they were Asian in combination with another race group, most commonly white.

Among the Asian alone population that only reported one detailed Asian group, the order of the second and third largest groups switched-the Asian Indian (2.8 million) group was the second largest, followed by Filipino (2.6 million). The Chinese alone population remained the largest.

Large proportions of Chinese (49 percent), Vietnamese (49 percent) and Koreans (44 percent) lived in the West. A much lower proportion of Asian Indians (25 percent) also lived in the West.

Among all detailed Asian groups, the Asian Indian population was the largest in 23 states, of which 13 were in the South, six in the Midwest and four in the Northeast.

The Asian Indian population was also the largest detailed Asian group in six of the 20 metro areas (Chicago, Washington, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit).

California is home to America's largest proportion of all major Asian groups, including Asian Indians, with 5.6 million, or almost a third of all those included in the 2010 census nationwide, the report showed,.

The state's Asian population increased 34 percent during the decade, but was outpaced by Nevada (116 percent), Arizona (95 percent) and North Carolina (85 percent).

New York had the biggest Asian population with 1.1 million, followed by Los Angeles (484,000) and San Jose, California (327,000).