There are approximately 3.6 million Limited English Proficient (LEP) Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the 30 metropolitan1 areas with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The percentage of AAPIs who are LEP in the top 30 COVID-19 hot spots – where 33.0% of AAPIs aged 5 and up are LEP – is higher than for US AAPIs as a whole (31.4% LEP).
The COVID-19 Hot Spots with the largest populations of AAPI LEP speakers are as follows:
| MSA | # AAPI LEP Population age 5 & up | AAPI LEP % | Top 5 AAPI Language Needs by LEP Population |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA MSA | 779,050 | 37.8% | 1. Chinese 2. Vietnamese 3. Korean 4. Tagalog 5. Japanese |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA MSA | 778,614 | 36.9% | 1. Chinese 2. Korean 3. Bengali 4. Tagalog 5. Urdu |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA MSA | 366,887 | 30.6% | 1. Chinese 2. Tagalog 3. Vietnamese 4. Korean 5. Hindi |
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX MSA | 170,874 | 32.8% | 1. Vietnamese 2. Chinese 3. Urdu 4. Malayalam, Kannada, or other Dravidian languages 5. Tagalog |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI MSA | 166,890 | 27.1% | 1. Chinese 2. Tagalog 3. Korean 4. Gujarati 5. Vietnamese |
Source: US Census, 2018 1-year ACS
1 As of 1/22/21, the 30 MSAs with the most confirmed COVID-19 cases are: 1. New York City, 2. Los Angeles, 3. Chicago, 4. Dallas, 5. Miami, 6. Riverside, 7. Phoenix, 8. Houston, 9. Atlanta, 10. Philadelphia, 11. DC, 12. Boston, 13. Twin Cities, 14. Detroit, 15. St. Louis, 16. San Diego, 17. Nashville, 18. Las Vegas, 19. Denver, 20. San Francisco. 21. Charlotte, 22. Tampa, 23. San Antonio, 24. Indianapolis, 25. Orlando, 26. Cincinnati, 27. Milwaukee, 28. Columbus, 29. Kansas City, 30. Baltimore; per https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html. NOTE: AAPI LEP data not available for Nashville, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cincinnati