COUNTY POPULATION
The population of McHenry County was estimated by the Census Bureau at 315,943 residents as of July 2007. That was an increase of 1.1 percent from a year earlier and 21.5 percent since the 2000 Census.

[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 33,470 persons (10.6% of the population). This represents an increase of 78.4 percent from the 2000 Census and compares with a 17.1 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 21.2 percent share of the county’s current births is large enough to account for about 905 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may be adding as many as 2,350 persons to the metro area’s population annually, i.e. more than one-sixth (18.6%) of the County’s annual average population change.

The 2000 census recorded 18,764 foreign-born residents in McHenry County. That was a 7.2 percent share of the overall population, which was lower than the 12.3 percent share for the state overall. The 2000 data showed an increase of 138.1 percent in the immigrant population since 1990, which compared with a 37.6 percent increase in the native-born population (which includes children born to immigrants) over the same period. That meant that immigration accounted directly for 14.2 percent of the overall population increase of the County.

In 2000, the Census recorded that more than two-fifths (45.9%) of the metro area's foreign-born population had arrived since 1990. This was slightly higher than the share for the state overall (45%). More than one-third (38.7%) of the foreign-born residents had become naturalized U.S. citizens. This was lower than the share for the state overall (39.5%).

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 10.9 percent. More than two-fifths of those persons (44%) admitted to speaking English less than very well.

In 1990, the foreign-born population of the county was about 7,875 residents. This constituted a foreign-born population share of 4.3 percent. By comparison, the foreign-born population shares of the country and the state in 1990, respectively, were 7.9 percent and 8.3 percent.

LEGAL IMMIGRATION
A study released by the Center for Immigration Studies in October 2001 indicated that there were 1,917 legal immigrants who indicated that they intended to settle in McHenry 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 624,000. That is more than double (139.9%) the 2000 population.