Capitol Media Services

 PHOENIX — More than 990,000 people living in Arizona last year were born in another country.

 And 70 percent of them are not U.S. citizens.

 The new figures today from the U.S. Census Bureau mark a explosion in the share of Arizonans who came here from another country. That 991,584 estimate from the federal agency amounts t 15.6 percent of state residents.

 By comparison, only 12.8 percent of Arizonans were foreign born at the beginning of the decade; 10 years before that, the figure was 7.6 percent of the population.

 The Census Bureau numbers do not break down how many in that group are here illegally. Instead, it pegs the number of foreign born residents who are not U.S. citizens at slightly less that 700,000.

 But a separate report released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pegged Arizona’s “unauthorized’’ population in January 2007 at 530,000 — or about three out of every four residents who are not citizens.

That is a 60 percent increase from the estimated 330,000 illegal immigrants Homeland Security said were in the state at the beginning of the decade.

 The two reports help paint a picture of Arizona and how the population here compares with the rest of the country.

 For example, the national average of foreign-born residents i 12.6 percent. That is up from 11.1 percent in 2000 and 7. percent in 1990.

 But Arizona is not even in the top five of states in this category.

 California leads with more than 27 percent of its more than 36. million residents having been born somewhere else. And New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida, Hawaii and Texas all have a higher percentage of foreign-born residents than Arizona.

 At the bottom of the list is West Virginia, where just 1. percent of its population was born somewhere else.

 The Census Bureau looked at only some of Arizona counties and cities. But the figures show that the number of foreign-born residents is not dispersed equally throughout the state.

 Of the 10 Arizona counties studied by the Census Bureau, th figures differ, at least some.

 More than 13 percent of Pima County residents are foreign born with nearly 61 percent of those not U.S. citizens. Homeland Security did not break down its estimates of illegal immigrant by county.

 Cochise County, despite its border location, had fewer than 13 percent of its residents who said they were born elsewhere, wit about 58 percent not U.S. citizens.

 But just about one out of four Yuma County residents were no born in this country.

 In Maricopa County, the foreign-born population is nearly 1 percent of the total, with more than 73 percent not citizens.

 And within the state’s largest county, the Census Bureau report that Phoenix had the largest percentage of foreign-born residents, followed by Tempe, Mesa and Chandler.

 The Census Bureau numbers show that a majority of those born elsewhere have been in Arizona awhile: Only about a third o those born elsewhere entered this country since the beginning o the decade.

 Not surprisingly, more than seven out of 10 of those born elsewhere came from Latin America. But almost one out of eight foreign-born Arizonans are from Asia, with about one out of 1 from Europe.

 But the report does show that, overall, a majority of Arizonans came here from somewhere else, even if it’s just another state.

 The Census Bureau reports that just 42 percent of state resident were born in Arizona, among the lowest rate in the country. Th national average is more than 67 percent, with more than 8 percent of Louisiana residents being natives.

 At the other extreme is Nevada, where fewer than 29 percent of current residents were born.

 The report also shows that more than 28 percent of Arizonans age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, compare to less than 20 percent nationwide.

The most prevalent language for those Arizonans is Spanish, spoken in 22 percent of households.

 More than 12 percent of Arizonans said they speak English “less than well.’’ That compares with the national average of 8. percent — and 20 percent in California, which tops the list.

 In 2000, the Census Bureau reported that 26 percent of Arizonan spoke a language other than English at home.