COUNTY POPULATION
The population of Saginaw County was estimated by the Census Bureau at 206,300 residents as of July 2006. That was a decrease of one percent from a year earlier and 1.8 percent below 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.
According to the 2006 Census Bureau estimate, Saginaw County's population had decreased since July 2000 because of a population loss from net domestic migration (an annual average of about 1,245 more native-born residents leaving than arriving). This was partially offset by natural change (an annual average of about 595 more births than deaths) and net international migration (an annual average of about 160 more foreign-born residents arriving than leaving). Therefore, immigration was the smallest component of population change, but it was adding population at the same time that the County was losing native-born residents.
The 2000 Census recorded 210,039 residents in the County. This was a 0.9 percent decrease from the 211,946 residents in the 1990 Census. During the previous decade, the County population decreased by 7.1 percent from 228,059 in 1980.
FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
The 2000 census recorded 4,290 foreign-born residents in Saginaw County. That was a two percent share of the overall population, which was lower than the 5.3 percent share for the state. The 2000 data showed an increase of 6.5 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a one percent decrease in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period.
In 2000, the Census recorded that more than one-third (36.2%) of the County's foreign-born population had entered since 1990. This was lower than the share for the state overall (44.9%). More than half (52.5%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was higher than the rate for the state overall (45.8%).
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 6.4 percent. More than one-quarter (27.7%) of those persons admitted to speaking English less than very well.
In 1990, the county's foreign-born population was about 3,985 residents (1.1% of the total state immigrant population). The foreign-born share of the county's overall population population was 1.9 percent. By comparison, the foreign-born population shares of the country and the state in 1990, respectively, were 7.9 percent and 3.8 percent.
LEGAL IMMIGRATION
A study released by the Center for Immigration Studies in October 2001 indicated that there were 748 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in Saginaw 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.
