New Report by SSI Team Finds Maine More Ethnically Diverse

Though Maine still has the oldest population in the nation, it is becoming more ethnically diverse. This is just one of the key findings from “Changing Maine: Maine’s Changing Population and Housing 1990-2010,” a new report by the SSI Sustainable Urban Regions Project (SURP) team. The report provides insights into Maine’s population growth, demographics, households, and housing over the past two decades. With funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the team analyzed data from the 2010 Census of Population and Housing and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey, as well as supplemental data from the Internal Revenue Service and New England Economic Partnership to demonstrate how Maine is changing as a state.

“The 2010 Census shows that many of the stories we have told about Maine’s population are no longer as clear as they once were,” said Charlie Colgan, who directed the project. “Inland and northern counties saw more population growth than in the 1990s, and coastal counties’ growth slowed, in some cases dramatically. Maine is becoming more ethnically diverse everywhere, and our aging population is driven as much by a lack of young people as an abundance of old people.”

The report is available online from the Mitchell Center website. For a hard copy of the report, please contact Ruth Hallsworth.