COUNTY POPULATION
The population of Prince Georges County was estimated by the Census Bureau at 841,315 residents as of July 2006. That was a decrease of 0.6 percent from a year earlier but five 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 2005 Census Bureau estimate, Prince Georges Country's population had increased since July 2000 despite a population loss from net domestic migration (an annual average of about 3,885 more native-born residents leaving than arriving). This was offset by natural change (an annual average of about 8,015 more births than deaths) and net international migration (an annual average of about 4,680 more foreign-born residents arriving than leaving). Therefore, immigration was the second largest component of population change, and it accounted directly for more than half (56%) of the County’s population increase over this period.

The 2000 Census recorded 801,515 residents in the County. This was 9.9 percent greater than the 729,268 residents in 1990. During the previous decade, the population increased by 9.7 percent from 665,071 in 1980.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
The 2000 census recorded 110,481 foreign-born residents in Prince George's County. That was a 13.8 percent share of the overall population, which was higher than the 9.8 percent share for the state. The 2000 data showed an increase of 24.2 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a 7.9 percent increase in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. This meant that immigration accounted directly for 29.8 percent of the County's population increase.

In 2000, the Census recorded that nearly half (47.5%) of the County's foreign-born population had entered since 1990. This was slightly higher than the share for the state overall (44.1%). Less than two-fifths (38.8%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was lower 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 15.9 percent. More than two-fifths (45.4%) of those persons admitted to speaking English less than very well.

The county's foreign-born population in 1990 was 69,809 residents. This number of immigrants ranked Prince George's County 55^th in the country. This number of immigrants constituted a foreign-born population share of 9.6 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 26,242 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in Prince George's 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 1,014,000. That is 26.5 percent larger than the 2000 population.