Thursday, February 10, 2011

Diversity grows with population in Maryland

Maryland's population grew in numbers and diversity during the past decade, as a shrinking white population was more than offset by big growth in the state's minority communities.

  • Although it remains the state's largest city, Baltimore's population declined nearly 5% since the 2000 Census.
    By Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP
    Although it remains the state's largest city, Baltimore's population declined nearly 5% since the 2000 Census.

By Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP
Although it remains the state's largest city, Baltimore's population declined nearly 5% since the 2000 Census.
"From a statewide perspective, the thing that stands out is the growth in the minority population," says Mark Goldstein, an economist with the Maryland Department of Planning. "All growth in the state was due to minorities."
The population increase was largest in counties near the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan areas and in the southern and coastal regions, U.S. Census data released Wednesday show.
The one exception to the state's overall growth was Baltimore. Although it remains the state's largest city, its population has declined nearly 5% to 620,961 residents since the 2000 Census.
During the past decade, the portion of the state's non-Hispanic white population under 18 years old has dipped below 50%, says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution. "It's a national phenomenon. If you look at the latest Census estimates, there will be a decrease in the number of white children between 2000-2010. It has a lot to do with the aging population, the relatively lower fertility rate."
Two counties, Montgomery and Charles, are majority-minority counties, meaning the non-Hispanic white population dipped below 50%.
Montgomery County, which borders Northern Virginia and Washington, remained the state's most populous, with 971,777 residents. Its population grew 11% from the 2000 Census. "Montgomery, Prince George's and the D.C. suburbs, they're all becoming more racially and ethnically diverse," Frey says. "They're gaining more Hispanics and Asians. They're all continuing to lose whites as well."

Census numbers where you live


Click here for an interactive map with data representing where you live.
Overall, Maryland's population grew 9% to 5.77 million, and the state remained the nation's 19th most populous — a ranking it has held since the 1990 Census.
The state's largest racial group — people who are white and not Hispanic — shrank 3.9%. The non-Hispanic black population grew 14%. The smaller Asian population grew by half, and the Hispanic population doubled.
Hispanics — who can be any race — make up 8% of the state. Non-Hispanic whites make up 54.7%, down from 62% in 2000. Blacks boosted their share slightly to 29%. Asians rose from 4% to 5.5%.
Frey says that although Baltimore's population dropped, it incurred "less pain" than in the 2000 Census, when the city's population fell 11.5%.
Goldstein says immigrants are attracted to the Washington area because of minority communities and a diverse range of jobs.
Montgomery County had the state's largest concentration of Hispanic and Asian residents. It has 135,451 Asian Americans, about three times as many as in Howard County, the next largest.
Goldstein says that when the recession hit, residents moved less. That reduced the number of people moving to the Eastern Shore and western Maryland in the second half of the decade, he says.

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