 In 1976, Houston and Baku established the first sister-city association between the cities in the U.S. and Azerbaijan.It was followed with a sister city between Honolulu, Hawaii and Baku in 1988, Newark, New Jersey and Ganja (second largest city in Azerbaijan) in the early 2000s (decade), and Monterey, California and Lankaran in 2011.According to the 2000 U.S. census, there were an estimated 14,205 Americans born in Azerbaijan, out of which 5,530 were naturalized U.S. Citizens and 5,553 identified themselves as Azerbaijani of either primary or secondary ancestry.