METRO AREA POPULATION
The population of the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was estimated by the Census Bureau at about 359,670 residents as of July 2007. That was a decrease of 0.1 percent since the 2000 Census but an increase of 0.2 percent since 2006.
According to the 2007 Census Bureau estimate, the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island MSA's population had increased since July 2000 despite a population loss from domestic migration (an annual average of about 1,780 more native-born residents leaving than arriving). This was offset by natural change (an annual average of about 1,495 more births than deaths) and net international migration (an annual average of about 510 more foreign-born residents arriving than leaving). Therefore, immigration was the smallest component of population change, but it accounted directly for all of the metro area’s population increase over this period.
The MSA is comprised of Scott County (45.2% of the area population in 2007), and Henry (13.8%) and Rock Island (41%) counties in Illinois.
The population of the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metro area in the 2000 Census was 357,997. This was two percent greater than the 350,861 residents in 1990. During the previous decade, the metro area's popultion decreased by 8.6 percent from the 383,958 found in the 1980 Census.
[Note: these population data record the children born to immigrants
as part of the natural change rather than part of the increase from immigration.]
FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
The increase in the foreign-born population since 2000 would put it in mid-2007 at about 15,190 residents, i.e., 4.2 percent of the overall population. This was a 7-year increase of 20.3 percent in the foreign-born population compared to a decrease of 0.6 percent 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. An 8.4 percent share of the metro area’s current births is large enough to account for about 405 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may be adding as many as 910 persons to the metro area’s population, i.e., much greater than the overall increase in the metro area’s population.
The 2000 census recorded 12,628 foreign-born residents in Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metro area. That was a 3.5 percent share of the overall population, which was higher than the 3.1 percent share for Iowa overall. The 2000 data showed an increase of 50 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a 1.2 percent increase in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. That meant that immigration accounted directly for 51.4 percent of the overall population increase of the metro area.
In 2000, the Census recorded that more than two-fifths (46.4%) of the metro area's foreign-born population had arrived since 1990. This was much lower than the rate for Iowa overall (57.5%). More than two-fifths (42.1%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was higher than the rate for the state overall (32.9%).
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 metro area in 2000, the share of other-than-English speakers at home (age 5 and older) was 6.5 percent. More than two-fifths of those persons (41.2%) admitted to speaking English less than very well.
The foreign-born share of the metro area's population in 1990 was 2.2 percent. That resulted from a foreign-born population of 7,532 residents.
LEGAL IMMIGRATION
A study released by the Center for Immigration Studies in October 2001 indicated that there were 2,504 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metropolitan area 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 as shown below (for Sangamon County only).
