About Maryland
Maryland is a small state where residents can enjoy a broad range of distinctly different lifestyles and histories. The state is unofficially broken into regions such as central, western, southern and suburban Maryland. Maryland was the 7th state to enter statehood on April 28, 1788. The capital of Maryland is Annapolis, MD, which is also home to the United States Naval Academy. As one of the leading producers and processor of seafood, Maryland is also a major exporter of blue crabs and soft clams.

Immigration to Maryland
Maryland is home to a major shipping port where the arrival of immigrants has increased by more than 600 percent since the 1960s. With its close proximity to Washington, D.C., immigrants seem to settle in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. rather than in the city of Baltimore.

Maryland’s naturalization rate of 45.3 percent is slightly higher than the national average of 40.1 percent based upon data recorded during the 2000 Census. Between the years of 1994 and 2003, Maryland has averaged about 18,000 legal immigrant admissions per year. Approximately 46% of the immigrant admissions is from Asian countries with another approximately 23% from Hispanic countries with the balance broken out between white and black populations. This rate of naturalization easily suggests Maryland has a deeply established immigrant population.

There has been an increase in the foreign-born population through new immigrant residents in the state as well as through the children born to immigrants. It is estimated that the immigrant population and immigrant births are adding nearly 15,237 persons to Maryland every year, equating to 39.8% of the state’s overall population increase.

The 2000 Census reports 518,315 immigrant residents in Maryland. This is an increase of 65.3% over the 1990 foreign-born population recorded at 355,393 immigrants. This increase is significantly higher than the 6.9% increase in the native-born population for the state of Maryland.

An indication of the change in the immigrant population in Maryland may be seen from the 2000 Census. The percentage of non-English speakers at home increased to 12.7% up from 8.9% recorded in 1990. Additionally, 39.6% of those who said they spoke a language other than English at home also said they spoke English less than very well.

Illegal Immigration to Maryland
As of 2007, FAIR estimates the state’s illegal alien population to be approximately 150,000 persons, which equates to about two percent of its overall population. The annual fiscal cost to Maryland taxpayers for emergency medial care, education and incarceration projected by FAIR is currently around $331,000,000.

Maryland Immigration Statistics

• Between 1990 and 1994, the number of school-aged children living in poverty within the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. increased from 21,395 to 36,251
• Maryland receives an average of about 785 refugees per year