Baltimore County reversed three consecutive years of population decline, thanks in large part to new immigrants.

The county’s population grew by 0.4% in 2024, according to new population counts from the U.S. Census released Thursday. The increase was driven primarily by international immigration, offsetting losses to net domestic migration, a Baltimore Banner analysis found.

The county’s current population is 852,425 residents.

It is too early to tell if this will be a long-term trend. But the growth is welcome news to county officials, who have seen the changes in their districts.

“Some of the neighborhoods I see, it’s like a mini-United Nations,” said Councilman Mike Ertel, a Democrat who represents the Towson area. “It’s pretty cool, and I think it’s good for the county, that people want to come here, that they feel comfortable here, and they want to make a life here.”

It’s also of some comfort to other county officials who have fretted about the decline in population and the dearth of new, affordable housing, which they say is driving away residents. At Monday night’s council meeting, Julian Jones, a Democrat who represents the West Side, reiterated his worry that longtime residents’ children were unable to remain in the county due to a lack of affordable housing.

Like Baltimore County, population growth across Maryland was driven primarily by international migration. Overall, the state’s population increased by 46,158 to 6,263,220 in 2024.

The U.S. population grew by 1% to 340.1 million people in 2024 — also driven primarily by international migration.

Baltimore’s population grew for the first time since 2014. Anne Arundel and Howard counties also saw modest population growth. The highest increase in the Baltimore region was Howard County’s 0.7% increase. Queen Anne’s County’s 1.9% increase was the most of any in Maryland.

The District of Columbia (2.2%), Florida (2.0%) and Texas (1.8%) saw the three highest increases. Maryland’s population increased 0.7%.

This data release does not detail which demographic groups or areas saw the most growth, but one of the largest groups of immigrants in Baltimore County is families from Nepal.

The Baltimore region is home to the fifth-largest group of Nepali immigrants in the country. To welcome them, the county began planning to build a cricket field, which would serve the local Saathi Baltimore Cricket Club. The sport is hugely popular in Nepal, and new residents here had been advocating for a venue for years.

Former Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. set up infrastructure to welcome new immigrants to the county, including hiring the first chief of immigrant affairs and establishing a task force to develop the Baltimore County Welcoming and Belonging Strategic Plan. Olszewski was elected to Congress in November.

“Some of the neighborhoods I see, it’s like a mini-United Nations. It’s pretty cool, and I think it’s good for the county, that people want to come here, that they feel comfortable here, and they want to make a life here.”

Towson Councilman Mike Ertel

County Executive Kathy Klausmeier, who will remain in office until the 2026 election, has continued many of Olszewski’s policies.

“The newly reported rise in our population highlights what we’ve always known: Baltimore County is a great place to live, do business and raise a family,” she said. “New residents help drive our local economy, increase our tax base, and enhance vibrant communities where opportunities are within reach and diverse viewpoints respected and welcomed.”

One such resident is Nara Khakurel, of Nepal, who moved to the area in the 2010s to open the Coffee Talk Café in downtown Towson. Khakurel said a network of Nepali immigrants who came before him assisted him with finding a property to rent, obtaining insurance and finding organizations to volunteer with in the community.

“A lot of Nepalese, they come here and they are entrepreneurs. So, they told me, ‘I know the accountant, I know the lawyer, I know how to register your business,’” Khakurel said. “They have done it before, so they helped me.”

At a celebration last week for his ninth anniversary, Khakurel mingled among fellow Nepali immigrants and several county officials, including Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough.

“Nara’s business is the American dream,” McCullough said. “His business survived COVID, and he’s doing wonderful things for the community with a smile on his face.”

Baltimore County is the third-largest county in Maryland, after Montgomery and Prince George’s. About 25 years ago, 75% of county residents were white. Today, it’s closer to half. Just over 30% of its residents identify as Black, about 8% as Latino, and 7% as Asian.

Since 1956, the Baltimore County Council has included seven representatives, one from each district — they were all white and almost all male until 2002, when the county created one minority district on the West Side.

County residents voted in November to change the charter to include nine districts, which current council members have said should promote diversity. A redistricting commission is working on the makeup of those maps and should finish them in the summer.