Sharp decline in number of non-citizens in R.I.

Providence Journal
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By Paul Edward Parker
Journal Staff Writer

As the recession deepened in 2007 and 2008, the number of foreign-born non-citizens living in Rhode Island dropped, according to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The bureau’s American Community Survey, an annual estimate of population, economic and other data, found that the number of people who are not U.S. citizens in Rhode Island dropped from 72,102 in 2007 to 66,178 in 2008, a decline of 8 percent.

Since the yearly surveys began in 2000, the number of non-citizens living in Rhode Island has mirrored the economy. It dipped from 70,012 in 2001 to 62,960 in 2003, when the so-called “tech recessionâ€