Business & Tech

Most Carroll Residents Leave County for Work

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals how daytime populations of places are affected by commuters.

by Brandi Jefferson

New figures explain the soul-crushing traffic heading out of Carroll County County each morning: most people living in the county don't work here. 

Between 2006 and 2010, only about 44 percent of residents commuted within the county, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. During the day, Carroll County loses about 18 percent of residents to commutes elsewhere.

The information is part of a new project called "Journey to Work," that the bureau released to help community leaders know how their county's daytime population differs from the resident population for transportation and disaster relief planning, the bureau said in the project's introduction.

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This is the first time the bureau has released this type of data based on the yearly community survey rather than the once-a-decade census.

So yes, the traffic is as bad as you think it is, though in nearby Baltimore and Frederick Counties, only about 6 and 7 percent of residents are commuting out, respectively.

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And in Howard County, just 0.2 percent of residents commute for work.

Those numbers might have something to do with this: In Howard County, there are an impressive 100 jobs per 100 residents. In Baltimore and Frederick Counties both have close to 90 jobs per 100 people. By contrast, in Carroll County, according to the Census report, there are 65 jobs per 100 people. 


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