Data released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that Maryland’s population has grown by nine percent this last decade, largely attributed to immigration and the availability of federal jobs.  While the population increased by 480,000 residents, it will not influence the State’s representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Baltimore Sun reports:

Much of the last decade’s growth has been fueled by the increase in Hispanic residents, and the state is one of a handful in the country — and the only one among its neighbors — where whites are the majority but make up less than 60 percent of the population. Whites now make up about 57 percent of Maryland’s population, compared to 62 percent 10 years ago.

The state’s black, non-Hispanic population has remained relatively stable, at about 29 percent.

And though Latinos make up about 7 percent of Maryland’s population, they have accounted for about 40 percent of the state’s growth since 2000.

Maryland’s steady growth in the last decade can also be attributed to its many federal workers, said Matthew Crenson, who teaches urban and American politics at the Johns Hopkins University. The state’s high proportion of public employees has buffered the state from the harshest impacts of the economic downturn and kept jobs in the state, he said.

“Federal government jobs are generally not affected by recession,” Crenson said. “Those people stabilize the population.”

Northwest Baltimore, for instance, will soon be home to an office campus for the Social Security Administration, which will house 1,600 employees. Construction on the complex is expected to finish in 2014.
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Data on the populations of localities, which will be used to redraw boundaries of legislative districts, will be released in early 2011.

For additional information on the 2010 Census results.