SILVER SPRING – What’s in a number? Plenty, Montgomery County’s planning director says, especially if he and his staff can work with the U.S. Census Bureau to revise their estimate for our area’s current population.
Last summer, the Census Bureau estimated Montgomery County’s July 2007 population at 930,813, what Census demographers said was about a 5,500-person increase from the previous year. With input from his planning staff, who analyzed construction figures, Planning Director Rollin Stanley was sure that Montgomery County was being undercounted.
With a letter of support from County Executive Isiah Leggett, the Planning Department challenged the Census’ county population figure, saying it was too low.
Today, the Bureau concurred with the planners’ analysis and revised the figure upward to 941,491 – reflecting that 10,678 extra people actually live in Montgomery County. (The population figure includes the incorporated municipalities, including Gaithersburg and Rockville, who provided data for the Planning Department challenge.)
Staff’s population projections came from the number of residential units built in Montgomery County since the last official Census in 2000.
The accurate population figure – just 58,500 short of the 1 million mark – illustrates that Montgomery County continues to be an attractive place to live and invest, said senior planner Erin Grayson, who worked on the Census challenge. Economic development staff can better market the county to new residents and businesses, allowing the county to continue to grow and thrive.
Much of the increase in population occurred in the county’s urban centers, such as Silver Spring, where several new condominium units have been built in an area with great access to public transportation.
About $200 billion in federal funds is distributed annually to states and other areas based in some part on Census estimates.
# # #