And while the population as a whole remains overwhelmingly white, some communities are displaying a racial and ethnic diversity broader than any in their history.
This is the portrait of Maine that emerges from the 2000 census data on population, residency, race and ethnicity released Thursday by the federal government.
Overall, Maine's population growth has been among the slowest in the nation, at only 3.8 percent over the past 10 years. However, behind that number lies a picture of a state in flux, where new people, new communities and new ideas are replacing old patterns and places of living.
In Aroostook County, schools are closing and officials such as Brian Hamel, executive director of the Loring Development Authority, are scrambling just to replace those people who have moved from the area. At the peak of Loring Air Force Base, 10,000 people – military personnel and their family members – lived there. The base closed in 1994.
At the other end of the state, in York County, officials are increasing taxes to pay for all the new school buildings and other municipal services they need to serve new residents. And entrepreneurs such as Rob Reinken, a home builder in Sanford, are finding a ready market for their services.
"This is the continuation of a trend that began back in the 1940s," said Richard Sherwood, a census specialist in the State Planning Office. "Now we're seeing a real acceleration of it."
The fastest-growing county in Maine was York, where in-migration and a booming economy added 22,155 people, for a total population of 186,742. That's a 13.5 percent increase since 1990 – more than three times the state's overall growth rate.
Cumberland County added 22,477 new residents, for a 9.2 percent growth rate. With a total population of 265,612, it remains Maine's largest county by far.
Other fast-growing counties lie along the coast. Hancock, Knox, Waldo and Lincoln counties all saw their populations climb by 9 percent to 10 percent.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Aroostook County lost 12,998 residents. The 15 percent population drain continues a trend that dates back to the 1960 census and the decline in agriculture and logging.
But Aroostook wasn't the only county to lose people. Penobscot, Androscoggin, Washington and Piscataquis counties all suffered population drops ranging from 1 percent to 4 percent.
On the community level, Portland remained the state's largest city, with a population of 64,209. But that's actually a decline of 109 people since 1990. In contrast, suburban populations exploded.
For example, Scarborough's population skyrocketed by 35 percent, climbing from 12,518 to 16,970. The increase makes Scarborough the 10th largest community in Maine.
In Gorham, the population rose to 14,141 from 11,856, a 19 percent jump. And Windham saw a 14.5 percent increase, from 13,020 people in 1990 to 14,904 people last year.
York County towns saw even higher growth rates. Dayton was the fastest-growing Maine town among communities with populations over 1,000. Its 1,805 residents represent a 50.7 percent growth rate.
Waterboro, Arundel, Otisfield, Limerick and York all saw growth rates of 30 percent to 37 percent.
Evan Richert, director of the State Planning Office, said the census reflects the continuation of two major migrations: a movement of rural, northern Maine residents to the south and west, and an outward shifting of city dwellers into expanding rings of suburban towns.
This has converted a number of previously rural towns to suburbs.
"Our population isn't so much on the rise as it is on the spread," Richert said.
The data on race shows that white people still dominate the state, accounting for 96.9 percent of the total population. However, the number of people of color has risen substantially.
At Reiche School in Portland, the greeting for visitors is written in 12 languages, and that's not even half of the languages spoken here. It's the largest elementary school focusing on English as a second language in northern New England.
Walk into a Portland supermarket and you'll see women draped in brightly colored clothing from Sudan or Somalia, choosing from an increasingly diverse selection of international foods.
Some state lawmakers have asked for meetings with representatives of various ethnic groups, to try to learn how the Legislature can better serve the needs of Maine's growing minority population.
In 2000, there were 26,262 Maine people who described themselves as black or African American, American Indian, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander or some other race other than white. That's a 34 percent increase over 1990.
The Hispanic population has risen from 6,839 to 9,360, an increase of 37 percent. Hispanic is an ethnic definition and not a race.
Direct comparisons of racial and ethnic data from 2000 and 1990 are not possible, because the Census Bureau changed the questions on the census form. In 1990, respondents could only identify themselves as members of one of five racial groups.
On the 2000 census form, people of mixed heritage could choose any combination of races.
About 1 percent of the state population, or 12,647 people, said they belonged to more than one racial group. The most common racial combination in Maine was white and American Indian or Alaskan native. There were 5,387 people who listed this racial identity.
Other common racial mixtures included Asian and white, and African American and white.
Nationally, minority groups have raised concerns about the accuracy of the figures, because the census has historically undercounted racial groups other than whites – primarily in urban areas. But the Census Bureau has said it will not issue revised numbers, at least for the purposes of reapportionment and legislative redistricting.
The population trends detailed in the 2000 census have had broad impacts.
In southern Maine, housing developments are eating away at the beaches, marsh grasses and farmland of Scarborough.
Deborah Jackson, who moved to town 23 years ago, said 25 to 30 houses have been built within a quarter mile of her family's home on Holmes Road, a rural area of town.
"When I first moved here, you could go to the hardware store or the grocery store and you would know just about everyone," she said. "Now you're lucky if you know the neighbors who live in your immediate area."
The Town Council adopted a building-permit cap last month to slow rampant housing development and give school officials time to catch up with rising enrollments. Cumberland, Eliot, Falmouth, North Yarmouth and York have enacted similar caps.
Jackson said the town faces a challenge in being open to new residents without losing any more of its community feeling.
"We need to be able to catch our breath, so that the schools and the town can put in place what they need in order to deal with the growth we've been experiencing."
Scarborough's growth rate has been so high that the school board must spend $1.4 million on modular classrooms to take the pressure off school buildings at all grade levels.
Up the coast in Waldo County, the growth of MBNA is shaking up an area that was once dominated by closed poultry farms, a small fishing industry and high unemployment.
MBNA's expansion has had a ripple effect on the local economy, encouraging other companies to add jobs and slashing the unemployment rate from 13 percent to 4 percent.
With more people in the area, new homes are popping up everywhere. The rental rate for a three-bedroom apartment in Belfast has climbed to an unheard-of $800 a month.
That has forced lower-income residents into outlying towns, where some school officials have squawked about the rising demand for special-education services.
Belfast has imposed a moratorium on big-box retail developments, but Wal-Mart has said it wants to be in town, and other smaller businesses, like restaurants and banks, are lining up building sites.
"There's a lot of things on the horizon here that say we're going to continue to grow," said town planner Wayne Marshall.
To the south, residents of York are reaching into their wallets to fund a $5.5 million high school expansion and a new $18 million middle school – with no help from the state.
The projects have boosted the property tax rate by $3.30 over the last two years, but with many houses selling in the $200,000 to $300,000 range, the tax bite will probably be affordable.
Town Manager Mark Green said the need for bigger and better schools was just too great for the town to hold off on construction until state assistance was available.
"We decided we couldn't wait any more," he said.
Other town officials in York County say a sizable chunk of the growth in the southern part of the county reflects in-migration from Massachusetts.
Rob Reinken, a home builder in Sanford, said these new arrivals provide a ready market for the new homes he is building at Mullins Crossing, a subdivision off Main Street.
"They're 55 and older, not retired yet but downsizing," he said. "A lot of them had kids who moved up here a few years ago, and now they're moving up to be closer to them."
But it's not just growth that has an impact.
As the population bleeds out of Aroostook County, towns there are struggling to retain a critical mass of residents to fund schools, water supplies, roads and other public projects.
In Grand Isle, a farming community near Madawaska that overlooks the St. John River, residents recently voted 192-33 to close the elementary school in June. Enrollments are down to 32 students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, exactly half of the 1991 enrollment level.
Grand Isle has one of the highest tax rates in the state, and people decided they just couldn't afford to run the school any more.
"Any time you run into a situation where a school closes, it's a very sad thing," said Patricia Boucher, the school's teaching principal, "es- pecially in a community this size that has nothing but a school, a church and a branch credit union."
Grand Isle's population hasn't exactly plummeted, with 518 people in the 2000 census compared to 558 in 1990. But the makeup of the population has changed.
"We now have many more retired couples living on fixed incomes than we do young married couples who have children," Boucher said. "We haven't had any one moving in."
Linda Berube, a staff member at the Northern Maine Development Commission in Caribou, said the region's towns have begun working on solutions to the population exodus and related economic decline. Some of the efforts include collaborating on public works or economic development projects and getting communities wired to the Internet.
"We don't want people totally discouraged about coming up here," she said. "But I tell people in these communities, if you want to live here, you've got to prepare."
The new census figures will be used in 2003 to reapportion Maine's congressional seats and adjust the boundaries of state legislative districts and county commissioners.
Over the next decade, the numbers will also guide federal funding allocations and private decisions about business investments and marketing campaigns.
But the data released Thursday represent only a portion of the information forthcoming from the Census Bureau. In the future, the government will release more detailed findings on housing, employment, income and other characteristics.
Julia McCue, a library assistant, contributed to this story.
Staff Writer Dieter Bradbury can be contacted at 791-6328 or at: dbradbury@pressherald.com
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