COUNTY POPULATION
The population of San Bernardino County was estimated by the Census Bureau at 2,007,800 residents as of July 2007. That was an increase of 0.4 percent from a year earlier and an increase of 17.5 percent since the 2000 Census.
According to the 2007 Census Bureau estimate, San Bernardino County's population had increased since July 2000 because of domestic migration (an annual average of about 15,480 more native-born residents arriving than leaving), natural change (an annual average of about 19,630 more births than deaths) and net international migration (an annual average of about 6,680 more foreign-born residents arriving than leaving). Therefore, immigration was the smallest component of population change, and it accounted directly for about one-sixth (16.3%) of the County’s population increase over this period.
The 2000 Census recorded 1,709,434 residents in the County, a 20.5 percent increase from the 1,418,380 residents in 1990. During the previous decade, the population of the county rose by 58.5 percent from 895,016 in 1980.
[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
FAIR estimates the foreign-born population in the county in mid-year 2007 to be about 437,205 persons (21.8% of the population). This represents an increase of 37.2 percent from the 2000 Census and compares with a 12.9 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 43.6 percent share of the metro area’s current births is large enough to account for about 13,705 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may be adding as many as 20,385 persons to the metro area’s population annually, i.e. nearly half (49.9%) of the County’s annual average population change.
The 2000 census recorded 318,647 foreign-born residents in San Bernadino County. That was an 18.6 percent share of the overall population, which was lower than for the state (26.2%). The 2000 data showed an increase of 70.5 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with an increase of 12.9 percent in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. That meant that the increase in the immigrant population directly accounted for 45.3 percent of the overall increase for the County.
In 2000, the Census recorded that nearly one-third (30.8%) of the County's foreign-born population had entered since 1990. This was a lower rate than for the state overall (36.9%). More than one-third (38%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This also was a lower share than for the state overall (39.2%).
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 San Bernadino County in 2000, the share of other-than-English speakers at home (age 5 and older) was 34 percent. More than two-fifths (45.1%) of those persons described themselves as speaking English less than very well.
In 1990, the foreign-born population was 186,896 residents. This number of immigrants ranked San Bernadino County 16th in the country. The share of the population that was foreign born was 13.2 percent. By comparison, the foreign-born population shares of the country and the state in 1990 were, respectively, 7.9 percent and 21.7 percent.
LEGAL IMMIGRATION
A study released by the Center for Immigration Studies in October 2001 indicated that there were 32,586 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in San Bernadino 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.
