Helped by sizable increases to its Hispanic, multiracial and Asian populations, Howard County managed to grow in 2023 despite losses to both its white and Black populations.
The suburban county between Baltimore and D.C. added 590 people in 2023, according to new estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. But it lost a combined 6,200 non-Hispanic white and Black residents during that time.
Those losses were canceled out by increases of roughly 3,300 people to the Hispanic population, 2,200 new multiracial residents and 1,700 new Asian people.
Howard County now has a population of 336,001.
The data comes from the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey released Thursday.
Howard County was 20% Asian in 2023, the highest percentage in Maryland, and had the second-highest total Asian population in the state behind only the much larger Montgomery County.
This release has a relatively large margin of error for population estimates, especially among racial groups that include fewer people. The Census Bureau reports 90% confidence that the estimates fall within their margin of error figures, but in some cases those ranges can be quite wide. The figures provided are estimates, and exact numbers shouldn’t be taken as hard and fast population counts. In the cases discussed here, the figures represent long-standing trends in population change in Maryland.
Baltimore City and Baltimore County both saw decreases in their population despite growth in their Hispanic population, Thursday’s data release showed. Anne Arundel County saw an increase in its population. It was also driven by an increase in the size of the Hispanic population.