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Gaithersburg grows more diverse and older; foreign‑born share holds near 40%
Summary
Staff reported that Gaithersburg’s population has become more diverse since 2010, the white non‑Hispanic share fell to about one‑third, people of color rose to about two‑thirds, the median age increased to 37.4 in 2022, and roughly 40% of residents are foreign‑born.
City planning staff said Gaithersburg has continued the demographic trends first noted in the 2019 visioning report: the city is more diverse, slightly older and has a substantial foreign‑born population.
"Gaithersburg has been a very diverse city since the 2000 census," Kirk Eby, a city planning staff member, told the work session. Staff presented ACS‑based measures showing the white non‑Hispanic share declined from just under one‑half to about one‑third of the population and that people of color increased from just over one‑half to roughly two‑thirds of the population. Between 2016 and 2022 the fastest growth was in the other‑race and multiple‑race categories, followed by Asian populations, while the white non‑Hispanic and Black/African‑American populations declined in absolute or relative terms in that interval.
Staff also reported that about 40% of city residents are foreign‑born, with roughly half of foreign‑born residents naturalized—figures largely unchanged since 2016 but that, between 2016 and 2022, the foreign‑born population grew faster than the native‑born population. The report flagged equity emphasis areas (EEAs) developed by MWCOG in 2021 and noted that many census tracts with higher concentrations of people of color and higher rates of poverty overlap those EEAs.
Eby said the city’s median age rose from 34.8 in 2016 to 37.4 in 2022 and that the 65+ cohort showed the largest growth among age groups. The presentation linked the rise in single‑person households (27% of households) and the growth in older populations as part of the explanation for changing household composition.
Council members asked staff to examine anomalies in the data—particularly shifts in race categories—and to explore whether increases in multi‑race reporting in the 2020 census and ACS explain observed declines in some single‑race categories. Staff said they would investigate further and could cross‑tabulate multiple‑race responses with specific race categories to clarify changes.
