COUNTY POPULATION
The population of Providence County was estimated by the Census Bureau at 635,536 residents as of July 2006. That was a decrease of 0.6 percent from a year earlier but 2.2 percent above the 2000 Census.

Net international migration data understate the impact of immigration, because the children born to immigrants after their arrival are recorded as domestic population change -- not part of the immigrant settlement data.

The 2000 Census recorded 621,602 residents in the County, a 4.2 percent increased from the 596,270 residents in 1990. During the previous decade, the population of the county rose by 4.4 percent.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
The 2000 census recorded 96,676 foreign-born residents in Providence County. That was a 15.6 percent share of the overall population, which was higher than the share for the state (11.4%). The 2000 data showed an increase of 29.8 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a 0.6 percent increase in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. That meant that immigration accounted directly for 87.7 percent of the overall population increase of the County.

In 2000, the Census recorded that more than one-third (37.7%) of the County's foreign-born population had entered since 1990. This was lower than the rate for the state overall (43.7%). More than one-third (37.7%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was much lower than the rate for the state overall (47.1%).

Another indicator of the impact of the foreign-born population may be seen in data on residents who speak a language other than English at home. In the County in 2000, the share of other-than-English speakers at home (age 5 and older) was 27.4 percent. More than two-fifths (45.3%) of those persons admitted to speaking English less than very well.

In 1990, the foreign-born population of the area was 74,466 residents. This number of immigrants ranked Providence County 52^nd in the country. This constituted a 12.5 percent foreign-born population share. By comparison, the foreign-born population shares of the country and the state in 1990, respectively, were 7.9 percent and 9.5 percent.

LEGAL IMMIGRATION
A study released by the Center for Immigration Studies in October 2001 indicated that there were 16,292 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in Providence County between FY'91-'98. This number did not include persons granted legal immigrant status as a result of the 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens. The ten countries that supplied the largest number of these new immigrants are shown below.

POPULATION PROJECTION 2025
The current rate of population change between 1990-00, if continued, would result in a population in 2025 of 689,000. That is 10.8 percent more persons than the 2000 population.