Chapter 1 – Population

The population of the CNMI in 2010 was 53,883 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Until the 2000, CNMI’s population increased in every census, but it decreased between 2000 and 2010 primar-ily because of the closing of the garment factories.  Saipan continued to have about 90 percent of the population in 2010, at about 48,000, while Rota had about 2,500 and Tinian had about 3,100.  The Northern Islands were uninhabited.

The Commonwealth had about 300 people per square mile in 2010, but not even divided.  Saipan’s density was more than 1,000 per square mile compared to 77 for Rota and 80 for Tinian.   

The population of the CNMI was about 3,000 during Japanese times, but began increasing rapidly un-der the American governance with better health and education.  The population was 8,300 in 1958, at the time of the first full U.S. Census, in connection with the 1960 US Census, and it increased to more than 14,000 in 1973, 17,000 in 1980, 43,000 in 1990, and 69,000 in 2000, before the recent decrease.

While the populations of Rota and Tinian were small enough that the Census Bureau did not dis-aggregate them further, Saipan’s 5 Districts were enumerated, with District 3 being largest with 15,600 people, followed by District 1 (15,200), District 5 (7,200), District 2 (6,400), and District 4 be-ing smallest at 3,800.  

The median age – the age that equally divides the population into an older and younger half – was 33.4 years in 2010.  The median age in 1973 was 17.2, so that age almost doubled during the period.  The median age increased to 19.7 by 1980 and remained around 28 from 1990 to 2000 before in-creasing by about 5 years in the decade before the 2010 census.  The median age for males in 2010 was 34.4 years compared to 32.5 for females, so the average male was about 2 years older.  Saipan’s median age was 33.3, compared to 35.0 for Rota and 33.8 for Tinian.

The CNMI had about 106 males for every 100 females in 2010.  This sex ratio was about 111 in 1980 during the last years of the Trust Territory, and stayed at the level in 1990, but decreased in 1995 to 95 males per 100 females and 85 in 2000 at the height of the garment factory period when many sin-gle Chinese and other foreign females were on island.  In 2000, CNMI had only 37 males for every 100 females in the 20 to 24 age group.  The disparity continued in the middle age groups in 2010 to a lesser extent.  In 2010, Saipan saw a sex ratio of 105 compared to 112 in Rota and 114 in Tinian, with the neighbor islands being even more female than Saipan.

The average household size in 2010 was 3.26 people compared to 3.65 in 2000, so the average size decreased by about half a person during the decade.  The average family size decreased from 4.16 to 3.80 people.  Family sizes are generally larger than household sizes because households include peo-ple living alone, who are not included in the family averages.  Saipan had the largest families and households in 2010, but Tinian and Rota had larger families than Saipan in 2000.

The U.S. Census collects information on grandparents in the house watching grandchildren.  Of course, traditional Chamorro and Carolinian cultures expect everyone to participate in child rearing, especially grandparents.  The total number of grandparents in households did not change very much between 2000 and 2010, at more than 2,000.  More than half of the grandparents in each census were responsible for their grandchildren, with about half of them being responsible for the grandchildren for 5 years or more.

About 2.2 children were ever born to females 35 to 44 years (the end of the reproductive period), with only Rota being higher, at about 2.7 children.  These rates are near replacement, so any increase in CNMI’s population would be due to immigration (and decreases would be to emigration).  The rate increased from about 2.1 in 2000 as many of the remaining garment factories left the islands.

About 24,000 CNMI residents in 2010 were born in foreign places.  Asia born were by far the largest, of course, with about 90 percent, and Oceania (particularly those from FSM) were most of the rest of the foreign born.  Saipan had about 22,000 of the foreign born, with Tinian having about 1,400 and Rota about 800.  The numbers of foreign born decreased considerably between 2000 and 2010.  In 2000, about 40,000 resident were foreign born, with about 15,700 born in the Philippines and about 15,600 born in China; the Philippines born decreased to 14,500 in 2000 but the China born decreased by more than 10,000 to 3,400 in 2010.  The Oceania populations also decreased as the Freely Associ-ated States migrants pursued better economic opportunities on Guam and Hawaii.  About 34,000 (about 2 out of every 3) residents had mothers and fathers foreign born, a considerable decrease from 2000.

About 35,000 CNMI residents native-born U.S. Citizens, including about 27,000 born in the CNMI it-self.  Of the 24,000 Foreign born, only about 1,000 were naturalized U.S. citizens.  Of those not citi-zens, about equal numbers had arrived in the last decade compared to previous decades – more than 10,000 in each group.    The percentage of native born increased considerably between 2000 and 2010, while the number of foreign citizens decreased from about 39,000 to 23,000 during the decade, accounting for almost all of the decline in the total population.  As would be expected, most of the foreigners came to work.

The U.S. Census uses residence 5 years before the census to measure short term migration.  About 44,000 people (or about 83 percent) of the population 5 years and older lived in the same house in 2005 as 2010.  Of the others, about 13 percent lived in a different house in the CNMI, and about 2,000 lived outside the CNMI.

The largest ethnic group in the CNMI in 2010 were Filipinos, at 19,000 being about 35 percent of the total resident population.  Chamorros were the largest other single ethnicity, at 12,900, but 4,600 people reported as Chamorro with some other ethnic group, so the total was about 17,500 or about 32 percent of the population.  About 2,500 were reported as Carolinian, 3,700 as Chinese, and 2,600 as Koreans.  Of the Freely Associated States, about 1,200 reported as Chuukese and a slightly smaller number reported as Palauan.

About 2 percent of the CNMI adult population were military veterans, but the rate would be higher if only U.S. citizens were included.  About 5.5 percent of the population reported having a disability, but about 38 percent of those 65 years and over.

Of the population 5 years and over, about 33,000 (or 2 out of every 3 non-English speakers) spoke a Pacific Islander language at home.  About 8,400 spoke only English at home.  About 12,000 spoke Chamorro (about 1 in every 4 of the resident speakers) and about 16,000 spoke a Filipino language (about 1 in 3).  (For some reason, Philippines languages are included in the Pacific Islander category here.)  About 3,300 spoke Chinese languages and 2,300 spoke Korean at home.  As expected, the numbers speaking Chinese languages decreased by about 10,000 during the decade before the 2010 census, while Philippines languages increased slightly and Chamorro decreased from about 14,000 to about 12,000.   About half the non-English speakers spoke English as about as often as their other language at home, while about 7,000 spoke English more than the other language, and 19,000 spoke the other language more than English.  The percentage speaking English only increased considerably during the decade before the census.

Because of the closing of the garment factories within decade or so before the 2010 census, estimates and projections are very difficult to make.

The last part of the chapter shows results for the villages in Saipan.  Both population and housing var-iables from the 2010 are included.