COUNTY POPULATION
The population of Marion County was estimated by the Census Bureau at 311,304 residents as of July 2006. That was an increase of two percent from a year earlier and 9.3 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, Marion County's population had increased since July 2000 because of net domestic migration (an annual average of about 445 more native-born residents arriving that leaving), natural change (an annual average of about 2,060 more births than deaths) and net international migration (an annual average of about 1,850 more foreign-born residents arriving than leaving). Therefore, immigration was the second largest component of population change, and it accounted directly for nearly half (44.1%) of the County’s population increase.
The 2000 Census recorded 284,834 residents in the County, an increase of 24.7 percent from the 228,483 residents in 1990. During the previous decade, the population increased by 11.6 percent from 204,692 in 1980.
FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
The 2000 census recorded 35,969 foreign-born residents in Marion County. That was a 12.6 percent share of the overall population, which was higher than the share for the state (8.5%). The 2000 data showed an increase of 153.9 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a 16.1 percent increase in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. As a result, the increase in the immigrant population accounted for 38.7 percent of the County's population increase.
In 2000, the Census recorded more than half (53%) of the County's foreign-born population had entered since 1990. This was higher than the rate as for the state overall (50%). About one-quarter (25.5%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was lower than the rate for the state overall (33.6%).
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 19.5 percent. More than half (56.7%) of those persons admitted to speaking English less than very well.
In 1990, there were about 14,160 foreign-born residents in the County. That constituted a foreign-born share of 6.2 percent of the population. By comparison, the foreign-born population shares of the Country and the state in 1990, respectively, were 7.9 percent and 4.9 percent.
LEGAL IMMIGRATION
A study released by the Center for Immigration Studies in October 2001 indicated that there were 4,014 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in Marion 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.
