GRAND FORKS - The numbers of foreign-born residents of North Dakota remained fairly steady from 2008 to 2009, but new immigrants are rapidly substituting for older, according to estimates released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Of the state's 15,013 foreign-born residents in 2008, abut 56 percent - 8,478 people - were not U.S. citizens.
In 2009, there were 9,931 non-citizens among the state's 15,453 foreign-born, or about 64 percent.
The annual demographic snapshots of the states and selected subdivisions are released by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Official population estimates based on the 2010 census will be released later.
Other tidbits from the newly released data:
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- In North Dakota, 4,870 grandparents were living with their own grandchildren, and more than half of those grandparents - 2,663 - were responsible for their grandchildren.
- Of 419,436 North Dakotans ages 25 or older in 2009, slightly more than 22,000 had less than a ninth-grade education. Slightly more than 80,000 had attained a bachelor's degree, and nearly 28,000 held a graduate or professional degree.
- Of a state civilian population 18 or older that totaled 498,949, there were 52,159 veterans of military service.
- Of 30,004 North Dakotans who speak a language other than English at home, 7,957 report they speak English less than "very well."
- More than 305,000 of the state's residents claim some German heritage, while nearly 200,000 identify themselves as Norwegian, 50,000 Irish and 30,000 Swedish. But the state also claims 715 people of Greek ancestry, 175 Slovaks and 494 Lithuanians.
- Of 263,757 males 15 and older in 2009, a total of 89,705 had never married, while 21,201 North Dakota men were divorced. Of 266,197 females 15 and older, 67,705 had never married and 21,625 were divorced.
Cass County numbers
Cass County saw about a 10 percent decrease last year in the estimated number of its foreign-born residents.
According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, about 6,800 foreign-born residents lived in Cass County in 2008 - compared with about 6,100 in 2009. That's a decrease of about 10.3 percent.
Foreign-born residents made up about 4 percent of the county's population in 2009, the survey found.
About two-thirds of the foreign-born residents are not U.S citizens, and a similar amount of them arrived in the U.S. in 2000 or later.
Chuck Haga is a writer for the Grand Forks Herald
