The Baltimore Banner features AAEDC’s MacQuilliam in story on Glen Burnie population growth

October 7, 2024

The Baltimore Banner featured commentary from AAEDC Chief Operating Officer Wes MacQuilliam in the following article investigating recent population growth in Glen Burnie:

Explosive growth in Glen Burnie last year: What’s attracting new residents?

The article opened by reporting that a Banner analysis of recently released Census data found that Glen Burnie:

• is home to about 80,000 residents, making it the fastest-growing part of Anne Arundel County and second-fastest-growing large place in the state. 
• experienced population growth of 8,400 from 2022 to 2023, a rate of 11.8%, and that it was one of just two places with double-digit-percentage growth in the state last year.
• lost about 2,000 white residents, a drop of around 5.7%, and more than 5,000 Black residents, a decline of 23.5%, but added around 8,100 Hispanic people, a growth of nearly 89%, nearly 4,100 multiracial people (174%), nearly 2,400 Asian residents (118%), and about 1,000 people the Census classifies as “some other race” in 2023.

It then offered the availability of affordable housing as one of the potential reasons for Glen Burnie’s population growth, featuring commentary from Councilmember Allison Pickard and the following from MacQuilliam:

“They (young couples who started off living in Baltimore but wanted to move out as they got older and their lifestyles changed) find Glen Burnie to be a good place to move to because of the affordability.”

It next cited the availability of jobs as another reason for growth,  before including more from MacQuilliam:

MacQuilliam said jobs could be contributing to the growth in Glen Burnie as well. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center and the industrial warehousing market are big employers.

“Glen Burnie has a really good industrial warehousing market, and we’ve seen a lot of businesses expand recently in the Glen Burnie corridor. Amazon has a facility up there; Best Buy has a distribution facility up there. So several new warehousing projects also contributed to the growth.”

As the article concluded, “No matter the reason people are coming to or staying in Glen Burnie, the city is thriving.”

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