SPECIAL REPORT: IMMIGRANTS
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PEAK: The go-go 1980s changed the face of Orange County. It was not until the last decade that the county became more ethnically diverse than California as a whole with a 97% increase in Latinos and a 177% increase in Asians. . . . Today, at least 47 languages are spoken in the public schools; cities brim with ethnic restaurants, churches and shopping areas such as Little Saigon. . . . Says Cal State Fullerton history professor Lawrence de Graaf in his Journal of Orange County Census Studies: Cities like Garden Grove have been “essentially transformed into a Vietnamese city. And Santa Ana, essentially into a Mexican city.”
International O.C. Orange County and statewide foreign-born population, as a percentage of the total.
Orange County Statewide 1960 5.7% 8.5% 1970 6.0% 8.8% 1980 13.3% 15.1% 1990 23.9% 21.7%
Source: California Census Data Center
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