COUNTY POPULATION The population of Anne Arundel County was estimated by the Census Bureau at 509,300 residents as of July 2006. That was a decrease of 0.3 percent from a year earlier but four 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.
According to the 2006 Census Bureau estimate, Anne Arundel County's population had increased since July 2000 despite a population loss from net domestic migration (an annual average of about 265 more native-born residents arriving than leaving). This was offset by natural change (an annual average of about 3,220 more births than deaths) and net international migration (an annual average of about 420 more foreign-born residents arriving than leaving). Therefore, immigration was the second largest component of population change, and it accounted directly for more than one-eighth (13.5%) of the County’s population increase over this period.
The 2000 Census recorded 489,656 residents in the County. That represented a 14.6 percent increase over the 427,239 residents in 1990. During the previous decade, the population rose by 15.2 percent from 370,775 in 1980.
FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
The 2000 census recorded 23,211 foreign-born residents in Anne Arundel County. That was a 4.7 percent share of the overall population, which was lower than the 9.8 percent share for the state. The 2000 data showed an increase of 75.3 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a 12.7 percent increase in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. This resulted in the increase in the immigrant population accounting directly for 16 percent of the overall increase of the population of the County.
In 2000, the Census recorded that one-third (33.9%) of the County's foreign-born population had entered since 1990. This was much lower than the share for the state overall (44.1%). Over half (53.6%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was higher than the rate for the state overall (45.3%).
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 7.3 percent. More than one-third (34.1%) of those persons admitted to speaking English less than very well.
The county's foreign-born population in 1990 was about 13,265 residents. This constituted a foreign-born population share of 3.1 percent. By comparison, the foreign-born population shares of the country and the state in 1990, respectively, were 7.9 percent and 6.6 percent.
LEGAL IMMIGRATION
A study released by the Center for Immigration Studies in October 2001 indicated that there were 4,294 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in Anne Arundel 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.
