Among the 62 municipalities, Lower Frederick Township had the largest percentage increase, 16.1 percent. Other towns that saw a large population rise were Upper Gwynedd Township, 9.8 percent, and Trappe Borough, at 8.2 percent.
Although the county's rate of population growth was lower than those of neighboring Chester County, 3.1, and Bucks County, 2.8, it was too high for Arthur F. Loeben, director of the Montgomery County Planning Commission.
"It's slightly alarming," Loeben said in an interview Thursday. "It's not managed growth."
He said the census numbers show an alarming increase in sprawl, as housing developments dot the once-open landscape.
"I'm not satisfied with the way growth is going. We need better control," said Loeben, a longtime advocate of land preservation and controlled development in the county.
"We preach," he said, noting that municipalities have the final say over how they are developed.
In the last several years, he said, the county has seen a slight increase in births. But in his view, the bulk of the population increase comes from in- migration, lured by relatively affordable housing in the western end of the county - and by the recent arrival of several large pharmaceutical firms, which brought in workers.
The rate of population growth in Montgomery County has generally been declining for the last 40 years, according to Loeben. It reached its peak at 46 percent during the 1950s, then declined to 21 percent in the 1960s and 3 percent in the 1970s before edging back up to 5 percent in the 1980s.
Loeben said the Planning Commission projected a population increase of 5.5 percent from 1990 to 2000.
Many established communities, including Abington, Cheltenham and Upper Merion, have experienced little or no population increase, a situation planners attribute to the cost of housing and to aging.
