 Other Groups such as the Portuguese, Polish, Lithuanians and Swedes as well as Jews came to work in Lowell and settled their own neighborhoods throughout Lowell.In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, approximately 50 percent of Lowell's 110,000 residents were foreign born.By the 1920s, the New England textile industry began to shift South and many of Lowell's textile mills began to move or close.