Over half of the Rock Hill region’s foreign-born residents aren’t citizens, new data found
More than half of the nearly 27,000 foreign-born people who live in the Rock Hill region aren’t U.S. citizens, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data. And their numbers are growing.
Fueled by increases from Latin American and Asian countries, non-citizens continue to make up a larger share of the York, Lancaster and Chester county populations, a Herald analysis of census estimates released Thursday found. Most of the cities and towns in the region follow the same trend.
The new census figures come at an uncertain time for many non-citizens. President-elect Donald Trump proposes mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Details on how it would happen or what it would cost haven’t been announced.
The Census Bureau doesn’t ask people about their legal status in its data collections. But it does ask questions on where people were born, how long they’ve lived here and whether they are citizens.
New census data on citizenship
The new data in the five-year American Community Survey list someone as foreign born if they were born outside the U.S. or its territories to non-American parents. Numbers represent averages over five years, in this case 2019 to 2023.
Here’s what the numbers say:
▪ The 6.5% of York County’s population born in another country to non-American parents is up from 5% from 2014-2018. Those residents were 6.5% more likely to be non-citizens than naturalized ones last year compared to 2014-2018. York County has an estimated 18,638 foreign born residents.
▪ Lancaster County has a population that is 7.5% foreign born, up from 4% in 2014-2018. That’s a difference of more than 4,000 people. The 53.4% of people born elsewhere who aren’t citizens is up 7.6% from 2014-2018. Lancaster County has 7,605 foreign born residents.
▪ Chester County’s number (301) and percentage (0.9%) of foreign born residents haven’t changed, but citizenship among them dropped from 71.9% in 2014-2018 to 57.5% in 2019-2023.
▪ People born in Latin America make up the most foreign born residents in York (45.3%), Lancaster (48%) and Chester (46.8%) counties. But only York County saw an increase from 2014-2018 to 2019-2023, of 3.4%.
▪ York (32%) and Lancaster (29.1%) counties saw increases from people born in Asia. That group grew by 8.9% since 2014-2018 in Lancaster County. Chester County saw more people born in Europe, up 12.8% since 2014-2018.
Rock Hill’s population change
Population changes seldom follow straight lines, but there are trends.
Take Rock Hill. Foreign-born residents make up 5.6% of the city. Average every five-year survey since 2015-2019, and that number doesn’t change. The prior nine times the census survey released figures, or the period from 2006-2010 to 2016 to 2018, the average was 4.8%.
The estimated 4,221 people in 2019-2023 who lived in Rock Hill but were born to non-Americans in other countries is the highest total since 2016-2020. So is the 60% rate of non-citizenship among them.
Most of those residents were born in Latin America (58.6%), followed by Asia (20%), Africa (11.2%) and Europe (8.7%). The biggest gains in 2019-2023 compared to 2014-2018 came from Africa (up 9.2%) and Latin America (8.4%). Asia (-9.5%) and Europe (-5.9%) dropped from 2014-2018.
Rock Hill residents born in Asian countries are nearly three times likelier to be naturalized citizens than non-citizens, according to survey data. People born in Africa are about twice as likely to be citizens.
On the opposite end, residents born in Latin American countries are 3.6 times likelier to be non-citizens. The 1,934 non-citizens born in Latin America represent almost half, or 46%, of all foreign-born Rock Hill residents.
Smaller cities and towns
The smaller a community, the wider changes can appear. Still, there were noticeable shifts.
▪ Fort Mill’s foreign born population of 1,894 people tripled from 2014-2018 estimates, and is now 6.7% of the town total. More people were born in Asia (39.2%), Europe (20.3%) and Northern America (19.6%) than in Latin America (16.1%). In 2014-2018, Latin America accounted for 49.3% of Fort Mill’s foreign born population.
▪ Tega Cay saw a drop in European residents. The city’s foreign born population from Europe dropped 25.7% from 2014-2018. The Asian population nearly doubled to 50.9%. Latin America more than doubled to 36.8%. Overall, the city has 1,942 foreign born residents.
▪ York (83%), Clover (79.2%), Lancaster (78.8%) and Chester (68.2%) each had most of their foreign-born population from Latin America. Those numbers were up 15.9% in Clover and 5.9% in York compared to 2014-2018, but down 10.3% in Lancaster and 4.5% in Chester in that same span.
Lancaster has 929 foreign born residents, followed by York (376), Clover (231) and Chester (22).
A world map of the Rock Hill region
In all, the Census Bureau estimates there were an average of 26,544 foreign born residents across York, Lancaster and Chester counties from 2019 to 2023. They were born in 88 countries, plus smaller geographies listed only as parts of regions.
Mexico accounts for 17% of those residents, the highest of any country. India is next at almost 16%, followed by China at just less than 4%.
Communities across the region contribute to those totals in different ways.
Rock Hill has more people born in Jamaica, at 18% of its foreign-born population, than any other country. Vietnam and the Dominican Republic also are in the city’s top five. Fort Mill and Tega Cay have more people born in India than anywhere else.
Nepal, Peru, Egypt and Romania all appear in top five rankings of area cities and towns. The city of Lancaster has more people born in Honduras than anywhere else.
It’s a long list of residents who came to the Rock Hill region from other places. And if current trends hold up, it’ll continue to grow.
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
