SILVER SPRING, MD – What does it mean to have 1 million people live in your community?
Montgomery County now can answer that question, given that its population, calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau, reached 1,004,709 last July. Data released Thursday shows that Montgomery County, the largest jurisdiction in the state since 1989, is now the first county in Maryland to reach the population milestone.
The Census data shows Montgomery County’s population gained over 13,000 people between July 2011 and July 2012, up from a revised 991,645 the previous year, a 1.3 percent increase.
Most of the population increase is due to births, what demographers call a “net natural increase” of 7,630 people. In the period, 13,097 births exceeded 5,467 deaths.
The rest of the increase is attributed to 8,700 people migrating into the county from abroad, offsetting the net loss of 3,100 people moving out of the county during the period. A trend of international migration that began in 1990 has not slowed.
Demographers say those changes are a result of a rebounding economy and housing market, which provides the confidence and means to set up house elsewhere. During an economic downturn, people tend to stay put.
Planners say we are ready for more residents thanks to a plentiful, diverse housing stock and good public transportation.
“We’ve planned for our population to increase,” said acting planning director Rose Krasnow. “Years ago, we set up tools to preserve our agricultural land and maintain our single-family neighborhoods. More recently we have created many mixed-use, multi-family housing opportunities in our downtowns or near Metro.”
While Montgomery is growing, it is not growing as fast as recent years. The rate of growth in 2012, 1.3 percent, is slower compared to the rates for the past three years, which ranged from 1.6 to 1.8 percent. Before the recession, the county grew less than 1 percent per year from 2002 to 2007.
Montgomery County contributed to the Washington, D.C. region’s growth of close to 90,000 more people, reaching 5.8 million in the period.