COUNTY POPULATION The population of Norfolk County was estimated by the Census Bureau at 654,753 residents as of July 2006. That was an increase of 0.2 percent from a year earlier and 0.7 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, Norfolk County's population had increased since July 2000 despite a population loss from net domestic migration (an annual average of about 4,185 more native-born residents leaving than arriving). This was offset by natural change (an annual average of about 2,505 more births than deaths) and net international migration (an annual average of about 2,675 more foreign-born residents arriving than leaving). Therefore, immigration was the second largest component of population change, and it accounted directly for all of the County’s population increase over this period.
The 2000 Census recorded 650,308 residents in the County. That was a 12.2 percent increase over the 616,067 residents in 1990. Over the previous decade, the population of the County increased by 1.6 percent from 606,587.
FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
The 2000 census recorded 76,732 foreign-born residents in Norfolk County. That was an 11.8 percent share of the overall population, which was lower than the 12.2 percent share for the state. The 2000 data showed an increase of 2.1 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a six percent increase in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. This meant that immigration accounted directly for 4.6 percent of the County's population increase.
In 2000, the Census recorded that more than one-third (36.8%) of the County's foreign-born population had entered since 1990. This was lower than the share for the state overall (40.4%). More than half (55.1%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was higher than the rate for the state overall (43.7%).
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 14.5 percent. More than one-third (36%) of those persons admitted to speaking English less than very well.
In 1990 there were 53,207 foreign-born residents in the county (9.3% of the state's total foreign-born population). This number of immigrants ranked Norfolk County 67th in the country. It also constituted a foreign-born population share of 8.6 percent. By comparison, the foreign-born population shares of the country and the state in 1990, respectively, were 7.9 percent and 9.5 percent.
LEGAL IMMIGRATION
A study released by the Center for Immigration Studies in October 2001 indicated that there were 16,442 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in Norfolk 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.
