Anne Arundel County eclipsed 600,000 residents in 2024, with a slight year-over-year population increase driven by births.

The county’s population grew 0.4% in 2024, reaching 602,350, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s 2,385 more residents than the 599,965 that the county had in 2023.

After surging by more than 14,000 people in 2020, Anne Arundel’s population has continued to grow, but at a slower pace. In 2024, the county owed its population growth to nearly 7,000 births, which was more than enough to offset the close to 5,000 recorded deaths.

“People continue to choose to raise their families here in Anne Arundel County,” County Executive Steuart Pittman said in a statement to The Baltimore Banner.

“We have an incredible school system,” the Democrat continued, “safe communities, beautiful parks and shorelines, and public servants who work every day to make our county the best place for all. We will continue to engage our residents and invest in the needs of our communities as our county grows.”

Julie Hummer, the chair of the Anne Arundel County Council, agreed.

“To me that’s a very positive indicator that people are choosing to start and grow their families in the county because they see it as a place where they can raise their kids in a good atmosphere with good schools,” Hummer, a Democrat who represents West County, said in a phone interview.

“We definitely want our births to be higher than our deaths,” Hummer added. “We don’t want to be an aging county. We need the young families to support the aging population.”

But Hummer said the increasing presence of young families adds to concerns about a lack of affordable housing.

“Can they move from being a renter to buying a townhome? How much affordability is there for these young families?” Hummer asked. “We want them to stay in the county. In order to do that, housing affordability is a huge problem. We need to make sure we have housing stock at all levels that’s affordable to all income levels.”

Dan Nataf, a political science professor at Anne Arundel Community College, leads the college’s Center for the Study of Local Issues, which conducted its latest survey of county residents last fall. The results showed housing affordability was front of mind.

The cost of housing was the “most important problem” in the county for 25% of the 873 residents surveyed, ranking second only to the economy and ahead of crime. Of those who indicated they were looking to rent or buy homes, approximately 87% and 70%, respectively, responded that they were “not very satisfied” with the affordability.

“Births come to people who are 20 to 40. They are usually the people most adversely affected by high housing costs,” Nataf said. “The question is what is causing the birth rate to sustain itself in the face of impossibly high housing costs? Is it people who are immigrants coming here and having higher-than-normal birth rates and that explains it? You kind of need more data to figure out who’s giving birth.”

This Census Bureau data does not give insights into who is immigrating or who is giving birth, instead focusing on the core components of population change: births, deaths, net domestic migration, and net international migration.

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. Baltimore County and Howard County 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%.