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Doing Research? : Immigration in Your Backyard
263,220 208,075 12.4% 10.8% 63,791 According to the 2006 Census Bureau estimate, the Portland-Vancouver PMSA's population had increased since July 2000 because of net domestic migration (an annual average of about 10,185 more native-born residents arriving than leaving), natural change (an annual average of about 13,180 more births than deaths) and net international migration (about 10,805 more foreign-born residents arriving than leaving). Therefore, immigration was the second largest component of population change, and it accounted directly for nearly one-third (32.6%) of the metro area’s population increase. The Portland-Vancouver metro area comprises the counties of Clackamas (17.6% of the metro area population in 2006), Columbia (2.3% of the population), Multnomah (32%), Washington (24.2%) and Yamhill (4.5%) as well as Clark County,
FOREIGN-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 24.8 percent share of the metro area’s current births is large enough to account for about 6,895 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may be adding as many as 17,700 persons to the metro area’s population annually, i.e., more than half (53.4%) of the area’s overall average annual population increase. The 2000 census recorded 208,075 foreign-born residents in Portland-Vancouver metro area. That was a 10.8 percent share of the overall population, which was higher than the share for Oregon overall (8.5%). The 2000 data showed an increase of 136.2 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a 19.8 percent increase in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. That meant that immigration accounted directly for 29.8 percent of the overall population increase of the metro area.
In 2000, the Census recorded that more than half (53.2%) of the metro area's foreign-born population had arrived since 1990. This was higher than the rate for Oregon overall (50%). About one-third (34%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was slightly higher than the rate for Oregon 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 metro area in 2000, the share of other-than-English speakers at home (age 5 and older) was 14.4 percent. Half of those persons admitted to speaking English less than very well. In 1990, there were 88,072 foreign-born residents in the Portland-Vancouver PMSA. That constituted a of 5.8 percent share of the metro area population. LEGAL IMMIGRATION
POPULATION INCREASE AND SPRAWL
A study published by NumbersUSA in 2001 that weighed sprawl factors in large metropolitan areas found that most (93.8%) of the additional 121.2 square miles consumed by the Portland-Vancouver urban area between 1970-90 was attributable to population increase. The other factor studied was per capita land use. The Portland-Vancouver urbanized area is similar to the metropolitan statistical area, but smaller (covering a population of 1,172,158 residents in 1990). POPULATION PROJECTION 2025 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
