Immigrant population hits all-time high
More than half of S.J.'s newcomers are from Mexico
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Jennifer Torres
By Jennifer Torres
Record Staff Writer
September 23, 2008 6:00 AM

The nation's immigrant population has reached an all-time high of 38.1million people, including 167,945 in San Joaquin County, according to figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

California - where immigrants make up 27.4 percent of the population (roughly 10million of the state's 36.5million residents) - has the largest foreign-born population in the country.

San Joaquin County's immigrant population is slightly smaller - representing about 24 percent of residents - but still is about twice as large as the nation's overall average of 12.6 percent.

The census figures released today offer 2007 estimates in a range of social, housing and economic areas, including citizenship status, marriage history, English ability, education level and commute time.

The data reveal that in San Joaquin County, as in California as a whole, numbers of immigrants and Spanish speakers continue growing.

Among the county's immigrants, about 24 percent have entered the country within the past seven years, and more than half - 52 percent - came from Mexico.

Overwhelmingly, foreign-born people living in the county are not citizens, but Census Bureau statistics do not track whether they have immigrated illegally.

While English remains the county's dominant language - 62 percent of county residents speak only English - fully 25 percent of residents speak Spanish at home.

Of those people, roughly half also speak English very well.

California, meanwhile, is one of four states - along with Arizona, New Mexico and Texas - in which at least one in five residents speak Spanish at home.

Nationally, about 19.7 percent of people 5 and older speak a language besides English at home. That figure has increased from 13.8 percent in 1990 and 17.9 percent in 2000.

For complete data, go to www.census.gov.

Contact reporter Jennifer Torres at (209) 546-8252 or jtorres@recordnet.com.

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