The state's growth is also putting more stress to the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. It causes more problems, ultimately, for our battle to save the bay. Maryland's population growth during the 1990s was fueled almost entirely by births among minorities and by foreign immigration. African-Americans now represent 28 percent of the population, up from 25 percent in 1990, a reality that should increase their political clout, especially in the inner counties. Migration from Washington pushed Prince George's black population up by 132,759.
Blacks now constitute two-thirds of the county population.
Nearly 98,000 whites left the county during the 1990s. Non-Hispanic whites in Montgomery slipped from 73 percent of the population to 60 percent. Montgomery's growth was also fueled by foreign immigrants drawn by jobs, public transit and family. The county attracted half of all the state's immigrants, according to Martin Ford, associate director of the Maryland Office for New Americans. That's an increase of 143,000, or 45 percent, since 1990.