July 22, 2002
<bt>Excerpted from the Potomac Subregion Master Plan
During the past 30 years, the order of magnitude of population growth accommodated by Montgomery County has been extensive.
Since 1970, the county’s population has increased from 522,000 to 855,000, an increase of 11,000 per year, 213 per week, or 30 persons per day, an extraordinary growth rate. During this period, Potomac’s population rose from 30,395 to 80,155.
SIGNIFICANT SOCIETAL changes have also occurred during these decades, leading for example, to more women in the workforce, fewer persons per household and a gradual shift from one-car families to one vehicle per person of driving age. All of these factors contribute to either increased development or congestion without population growth.
It is illuminating to set Potomac’s growth rate over the last decade in the context with those for the county, state and nation.
Since 1990, the population increase in the United States has been 26 million or 10.4 percent; in state of Maryland, population growth has been 500,000 or 10.3 percent; in Montgomery County, population grew 100,000, or 12.9 percent; and in Potomac, population has grown by 9,000 since 1990, or 12.7 percent. All are approximately in the same range of growth. Therefore, the growth of the county and Potomac was not significantly different from the state or the nation as a whole.
WHAT IS SIGNIFICANT about the Potomac percentage increase in the 1990s (12.7 percent) is that it is a significant drop from the 1980s, when population grew by 47.1 percent, and the 1970s, when population grew by 59.2 percent.
It is anticipated that Potomac’s rate of growth, already slowing, will drop even further during the next 20 years. The number of existing dwelling units in 1999 was 26,327, and the number of dwelling units forecast for 2020 is approximately 32,000. In 1999, jobs in Potomac numbered 15,576. The number of jobs forecast by 2020 is 23,000 with most new jobs anticipated at Traville and Fortune Parc, both of which have immediate access to I-270.