Kentucky

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2009 CB est.):	4,314,113
Population (2000 Census):	4,041,769
Foreign-Born Population (2009 CB est.):	127,973
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census):	80,271
Share Foreign-Born (2009):	3.0%
Share Foreign-Born (2000):	2.0%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2009 CB est.):	40,710
Share Naturalized (2009):	31.8%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 2000-2009):	44,577
Refugee Admission (HHS 2000-2009)	17,545
Illegal Alien Population (2010 FAIR est.):	50,000
Costs of Illegal Aliens (2010 FAIR)	$326,200,000
Projected 2050 Population (2006 FAIR)	5,282,000

Kentucky: General Data

STATE POPULATION

Using the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2009 Kentucky’s population had increased to 4,314,113 residents, i.e., an annual average increase of about 29,285 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 0.7 percent per year. The comparable national annual rate of increase was 1.0 percent.

The 2000 Census found 4,041,769 persons resident in Kentucky. This was an increase of 356,473 persons above the 1990 Census. The annual rate of increase (0.9%) was below the national rate of increase (1.2%).

The 2000 population is about 47,000 more persons than the Census Bureau had expected to find in the state in 2000 when it issued its most recent state population projections in 1996. The significance of this is that the Census Bureau has concluded that much of the shortfall in their population estimates during the 1990s was due to an underestimation of the illegal alien population.

From 1980 to 1990, the population of the state increased by an annual rate of 0.5 percent (from 3,660,324 to 3,685,298 residents). The national rate of change was 1.0 percent.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

Based on the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the foreign-born population of Kentucky was 127,973 persons in 2009. This meant a foreign-born population share of 3.0 percent.

NET INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION (NIM)

Based on the CPS, the Census Bureau estimated that between the 2000 Census and July 2009 the state’s population increased by about 44,345 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 4,765 residents, i.e., about one-seventh (14.5%) of the total increase (not including the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

Kentucky Sources of Population Change 2000-09

FOREIGN-BORN CHANGE

The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 5,130 people, which is more than one-sixth (17.5%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 59.4 percent compared to a 5.7 percent increase in the native-born population.

Immigration also contributes to population growth through the children born to immigrants in this country. Nationally the share of births to the foreign-born is about double their share of the population. A 6 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 3,310 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for nearly 8,440 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., nearly three-tenths (28.8%) of the state’s overall population increase.

The 2000 Census found that 58.8 percent of Kentucky's foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, and it is a much higher share than the national average (43.7%). In the 2009 CPS estimate, more than half (54%) had arrived since 2000. That is higher than the less than one-third (31.6%) share of new arrivals nationally.

FOREIGN-BORN CHARACTERISTICS

An indicator of the change in the immigrant population may be seen in data on the share of the population that speaks a language other than English at home. In 2000 the share of non-English speakers at home in Kentucky was 3.9 percent. Nearly two-fifths (39.7%) of those also said they spoke English less than very well. In the 2009 ACS data, 4.5 percent were non-English speakers at home, of whom 43.6 percent did not speak English well. Among those speaking other than English at home, more than half (51.6%) spoke Spanish. Among those not speaking English well, nearly three-fifths (58%) spoke Spanish.

Speakers of Foreign Languages (at home in Kentucky in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	70,060
German	17,900
French	12,445
Chinese	3,980
Japanese	3,775
Korean	3,730
Arabic	3,165
Vietnamese	3,020
Serbocroatian	2,755
Russian	2,160
(Source: Census Bureau report: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over, April 2004)

The chart above shows the foreign-born population increasing by 59.4 percent since 2000 and the share of that population from Latin America and the Caribbean increasing by 101.9 percent. That region’s share of the state’s immigrant population grew from 31.9 percent to 40.4 percent in 2009.

The ten countries above constituted approximately three fifths (61.9%) of the foreign-born population in Kentucky in 2006. Mexico accounted for almost a quarter (24.8%) alone.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2009 ACS indicate that 40,710 residents, or 31.8 percent, of the foreign-born population in Kentucky were U.S. citizens, compared to 27,569 residents, or 34.3 percent, in 2000.

Nationally, 40.3 percent of the foreign-born population was U.S. citizens in 2000, and 43.7 percent in 2009.

Refugee Settlement

Kentucky received 17,545 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'00-'09).

LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY STUDENTS

In Kentucky overall enrollment in 2008 (666,225) was 2.8 percent above enrollment in 1999. LEP enrollment was 166.5 percent higher than a decade earlier.

FOREIGN STUDENTS

The 2009/2010 annual report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) lists the number of foreign students attending post-secondary school in Kentucky as X,XXX. Five schools in Kentucky are listed as having a major concentration of these students:

U. Kentucky-Lexington – 1,281
U. Louisville – 668
W. Kentucky U. – 636
Murray S.U. – 635
Campbellsville U. – 223

Those schools represented nearly three-fourths (73.7%) of the total foreign students in the state.

For information on foreign student issues see: Foreign Students in the United States

ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR Estimate - FAIR estimated the state’s illegal alien population as of 2010 was as many as 50,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 12 million persons.

INS/DHS Estimate - The INS (now dissolved into the Dept. of Homeland Security) estimated that the resident illegal population in New Jersey was 15,000 as of 2000. This number 9,000 higher than the INS' 1996 estimate.

Other Estimates - The Pew Hispanic Center estimated the illegal alien population of the state at 50,000 as of 2010.

COSTS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR’s 2010 fiscal cost study, “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers” estimated the following cost outlays and tax receipts:

Kentucky Fiscal Costs In 2009
Due to Illegal Aliens ($M)		(Pct.)
K-12 educ.	$124.3	38.1%
LEP educ.	$25.0	7.7%
Medicaid	$18.5	5.7%
SCHIP	$5.5	1.7%
Justice	$22.1	6.8%
Welfare+	$46.9	14.4%
General	$83.9	25.7%
Total	$326.2
Tax Receipts	$17.4
Net Cost	$308.8

Source: “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers,” FAIR 2010.

We projected Kentucky’s population in 2050 likely would be between 5.22 million and 5.28 million depending on what happens with immigration policy. See “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050: Four Immigration Scenarios,” FAIR 2006.

Kentucky: Immigrant Admissions

Kentucky Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
2000	2,989
2001	4,548
2002	4,681
2003	3,047
2004	3,624
2005	5,267
2006	5,506
2007	4,340
2008	5,315
2009	5,260
Total	44,577

Recent immigrant admissions are at 566 percent of admissions just after adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 770 immigrants. During the most recent five years, admissions averaged about 4,360 persons.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 631 in FY'69 to 5,506 in FY’06. The cumulative total of admissions to Kentucky between fiscal years 1965 and 2009 was about 90,275 immigrants.

INS DATA BY NATIONALITY: FY'96 - FY'05

The table below furnishes INS data on the immigrants who have been admitted for residence in Kentucy since 1996 by nationality.

The INS data are for nationals of the countries with the largest number of immigrants admitted or adjusted to legal residence each year since 1996. The absence of data means that the total number of admissions to the United States by nationals of that country was not enough to merit detailed reporting in that year.

The nationalities may change each year, so the totals in some cases will not reflect all the immigrants of that nationality who have become legal immigrants in Louisiana during this period.

The Department of Homeland Security website is has detailed data on immigrant admissions since FY’03 by year and by country. That resource has data for all source countries. (See http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/data/dslpr.shtm).

Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
Countries	'96	'97	'98	'98	'00	'01	'02	'03	'04	'05	Total
Bangladesh	12	15	16	19	16	n/a	18	6	10	24	136
Canada	132	121	80	49	61	175	143	79	85	168	1,093
China*	149	146	93	95	187	262	235	209	202	442	2,020
Colombia	10	17	9	6	9	46	29	37	26	42	231
Cuba	16	101	243	213	578	389	506	331	468	318	3,163
D.R.	4	9	5	4	3	15	12	11	12	12	87
Ecuador	7	6	3	11	5	20	10	5	13	20	100
El Sal.	10	13	8	8	3	14	23	11	20	33	143
Germany	n/a	49	53	27	57	129	120	72	54	89	650
Guatemala	23	19	26	11	52	51	85	81	111	145	604
Guyana	9	3	2	2	1	n/a	1	5	3	6	32
Haiti	32	10	6	5	8	7	29	22	18	11	148
Honduras	n/a	8	7	8	13	n/a	14	6	11	12	79
India	162	152	119	119	149	289	275	248	393	511	2,417
Iran	41	44	46	33	32	71	46	42	28	62	445
Ireland	n/a	11	9	2	5	n/a	8	5	13	24	77
Jamaica	9	12	7	9	5	19	7	12	9	14	103
Japan	n/a	27	35	11	30	63	47	49	63	82	407
Korea	57	58	32	41	54	78	63	59	68	110	620
Mexico	98	145	141	113	164	260	441	232	197	288	2,079
Nicaragua	n/a	3	2	4	9	19	10	8	4	5	64
Nigeria	12	22	17	10	14	n/a	20	23	27	32	177
Pakistan	21	40	23	19	25	66	58	32	44	69	397
Peru	10	8	12	11	11	15	11	26	24	51	179
Philippines	90	69	50	41	88	114	121	150	174	228	1,125
Poland	14	8	7	3	3	12	19	8	21	12	107
Sov. Union*	109	110	116	102	170	163	244	194	120	215	1,543
Trin. & Tob.	n/a	8	7	20	4	n/a	7	6	10	6	68
U. Kingdom	69	45	36	33	44	117	94	82	71	87	678
Vietnam	150	157	195	73	144	181	101	81	59	127	1,268
Yugoslavia*	183	133	237	117	549	864	1,094	210	448	723	4,558
Other	590	370	375	318	496	1,109	790	696	818	1,299	6,861
Total	2,019	1,939	2,017	1,537	2,989	4,548	4,681	3,038	3,624	5,267	31,659

* China includes Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Soviet Union includes Russia and former parts of the USSR. Yugoslavia includes Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro-Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.A dash (-) indicates that the data for that year was not published for that country in the Immigration Statistical Yearbook.

Immigrant settlement from the 31 countries above accounted for nearly four-fifths (78.3%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in Kentucky during this period. Immigrants from former Yugoslavia, Cuba, China, Vietnam, India and Mexico accounted for nearly half (49.0%) of all admissions.

Kentucky : Poll Data

Rasmussen Poll: Arizona Law SB 1070
July 2010

Suppose the new Arizona immigration law was being considered for your state. Would you favor or oppose passage of that law in your state?

The U.S. Justice Department has decided to challenge the legality of Arizona’s new immigration law in federal court. Do you agree or disagree with the decision to challenge the legality of Arizona’s new immigration law?

A Rasmussen Report conducted on November 01, 2007 of 500 Likely Voters in Kentucky found

81% oppose making drivers’ licenses available to illegal immigrants.
81% said they favor police officers automatically checking legal status during traffic stops, and 67% said if someone stopped turns out to be illegal, they should be deported
88% believe it is important for the government to improve its enforcement of the borders and reduce illegal immigration (76% “very important” and 14% “somewhat important”).

Kentucky : Immigration Impact

Population Profile

While Kentucky hasn't yet suffered the explosive population growth that other parts of the South have, demographic indicators show that it's headed in that direction. Dramatic population growth projections in Fayette and twelve surrounding counties — 45 percent by 2030, according to a state demographer—have local leaders concerned that the region can't handle the influx. Anderson, Garrad, and Scott counties are expected to more than double their populations by 2030. No one knows how the state will deliver water to the newcomers, and no major new roads have been planned to accommodate the population increase.¹

Environmental and Quality of Life Profile

Schools: Public school enrollment in Kentucky increased by about 11,000 students between 1998 and 2008. Over the same period, the number of students per teacher decreased from 16.4 to 15.7, compared to a nationwide decrease of 1.4 students per teacher. Kentucky now ranks 39th nationwide in student-teacher ratio, dropping nine spots between 1998 and 2008.²

In Oldham County, where population increased 39 percent in the last decade, school officials are worried that already crowded classrooms won't be able to handle the county's ballooning population. The school district is already at 109 percent capacity, and the school superintendent has asked the planning commission to temporarily stop approving new residential developments.³ At South Oldham High School, which is 30 percent over capacity, administrators have had to increase the amount of time between periods, because the hallways are so packed that students were unable to make their way to class on time.⁴

Poverty: Kentucky’s immigrants are almost twice as likely to be in poverty as their native-born counterparts. In 2007, 19.3 percent of foreign-born households were below the poverty line, compared to 11.6 percent of native households. An additional 10.5 percent of the foreign-born and 10.3 percent of native households were not in poverty but had incomes less than 1.5 times the poverty level.⁵ Kentucky is one of three states in which native children are more likely to be poor than immigrant children. 21.0 percent of children in immigrant families were poor in 2006, compared to 21.1 percent of native children.⁶

Traffic: Traffic on Kentucky highways increased by 36 percent between 1990 and 2008.. In 2010, over half (57%) of the state’s major urban highways were considered "congested" by The Road Information Project (TRIP).⁷ As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for Kentucky residents increased 14 percent during the 1990s, to 24 minutes in 2000.⁸

The typical Louisville commuter spent 38 extra hours in traffic due to congestion in 2007, resulting in 26 wasted gallons of fuel per commuter and an estimated fuel and time cost of $409 million. In Cincinnati, whose metro area includes part of Kentucky, each commuter waited about 25 hours.⁹ About 11 percent of Kentucky commuters had a commute of 45 minutes or longer in 2008.¹⁰

One in five (20%) Kentucky roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and nearly one third (32%) of bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Motorists pay the price of neglected road maintenance. In Kentucky, road conditions cost the typical driver and estimated $185 per year in extra repairs and operating costs, a $543 million total statewide.¹¹

Disappearing Open Space: The amount of developed land in Kentucky increased by 969,100 acres from 1982 to 2007, growing at a pace of 39,010 acres per year over the last ten years of that period.¹²

A study of urban sprawl between 1970 and 1990 that calculated the impact of population increase and per capita land use found that 39.4 square miles of additional land were consumed by urban sprawl in the Wichita metropolitan area, and 35.8 percent of that sprawl was attributable to population increase.¹³

Air Quality: In 2010, the American Lung Association gave 17 of the 26 Kentucky counties included in its assessment an "F" for frequency of high ozone levels. Five more were graded "D."¹⁴

Crowded Housing:An estimated 23,638 of Kentucky’s housing units were classified as crowded in 2008, defined as units with more than one occupant per room. This amounted to 1.4 percent of the state’s housing units. In addition, 4,351 units were severely crowded, with at least 1.5 occupants per room.¹⁵ Nationally, crowded housing rates are driven upward by immigration, where 27 percent of children in immigrant families live in crowded housing compared to 9 percent of children with native-born parents. In Kentucky, the shares are 16 percent of children in immigrant families are in crowded housing compared to 7 percent of those in native-headed households.¹⁶

Solid Waste: Kentucky generates 1.34 tons of solid waste per capita each year.¹⁷

Endnotes:

"Projected Growth in Central Kentucky Concerns Leaders," Associated Press, September 30, 2002.
NEA, "Rankings and Estimates," 1999 and 2009 editions.
"School Officials Want Residential Growth Slowed," Associated Press, November 16, 2001.
Mary Meehan, "South Oldham High Hundreds of Students Over Its Limit," Herald-Leader, February 12, 2002.
Migration Information Source State Data (Migration Policy Institute)
Urban Institute, Children of Immigrants Data Tool.
The Road Information Project (TRIP), "Key Facts about Kentucky’s Surface Transportation System and Federal Funding," May 2010.
"Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000," Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau. "Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 1990," 1990 Census, U.S. Census Bureau
Texas Transportation Institute, "Urban Mobility Report 2009."
American Community Survey, 2008 Estimates, Custom Data Table.
The Road Information Project (TRIP), "Key Facts about Kentucky’s Surface Transportation System and Federal Funding," May 2010.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, "Summary Report: 2007 National Resources Inventory."
Beck, Roy and Leon Kolankiewicz, "Weighing Sprawl Factors in Large U.S. Cities," NumbersUSA, March 2001.
American Lung Association, "State of the Air 2010."
American Community Survey, Three-Year Estimates 2006-2008. Data retrieved using ACS Custom Table tool.
Kids Count Data Center, which used 2008 American Community Survey Data.
Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.

Other Resources

State Local Reform Organizations

State Representatives Voting Record

Updated December 2011

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