{"id":4550,"date":"2023-06-24T16:30:36","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T16:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=4550"},"modified":"2026-08-07T13:07:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:07:41","slug":"montgomery-county-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/montgomery-county-maryland\/","title":{"rendered":"Montgomery County, Maryland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montgomery County is a county in Maryland, United States, directly north of Washington, D.C.
\nIt had a population of 1,062,061 at the 2020 census, up 9.3 percent from 971,777 in 2010, and an
\nestimated 1,074,582 by 2024. The county covers 493.11 square miles (1,277 km2) of land, centred
\nnear 39\u00b008\u2032N 77\u00b012\u2032W.<\/p>\n

Rockville is the county seat; its postal code is 20850. Gaithersburg, its neighbor along
\nInterstate 270, is technically the county’s largest incorporated city by a slim margin, and
\nGermantown, an unincorporated community, outsizes them both. The county holds 3 incorporated
\ncities, 15 incorporated towns and dozens of unincorporated communities, and it runs on Eastern
\nTime. Its FIPS code is 24031.<\/p>\n

Towns & Villages in Montgomery County<\/h2>\n

Montgomery County has 18 incorporated municipalities and dozens more unincorporated communities
\nrecognized as census-designated places (CDPs). Maryland does not use civil townships, so every
\nplace here answers to the county government directly unless it has its own charter. The table
\nbelow lists all 18 incorporated places, then the county’s 25 largest CDPs by population.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Place<\/th>\nType<\/th>\nPop.<\/th>\nZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Gaithersburg<\/td>\nCity<\/td>\n69,657<\/td>\n20877<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rockville<\/td>\nCity · seat<\/td>\n67,117<\/td>\n20850<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Takoma Park<\/td>\nCity<\/td>\n17,629<\/td>\n20912<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Poolesville<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n5,742<\/td>\n20837<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chevy Chase<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n2,904<\/td>\n20815<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kensington<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n2,122<\/td>\n20895<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chevy Chase Village<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n2,049<\/td>\n20815<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Somerset<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n1,187<\/td>\n20815<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chevy Chase View<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n1,005<\/td>\n20815<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Garrett Park<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n996<\/td>\n20896<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Martin’s Additions<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n946<\/td>\n20815<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chevy Chase Section Three<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n802<\/td>\n20815<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chevy Chase Section Five<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n672<\/td>\n20815<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Laytonsville<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n572<\/td>\n20882<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Washington Grove<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n505<\/td>\n20880<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Glen Echo<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n279<\/td>\n20812<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brookeville<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n166<\/td>\n20833<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Barnesville<\/td>\nTown<\/td>\n144<\/td>\n20838<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Six of the incorporated towns above cluster around one name. The Town of Chevy Chase, Chevy
\nChase Village, Chevy Chase View, Martin’s Additions and Chevy Chase Sections Three and Five are
\nfive separate incorporated municipalities, each with its own mayor and council, all carved out of
\nthe historic Chevy Chase streetcar suburb and all sharing the 20815 ZIP. A sixth area, simply
\ncalled Chevy Chase, is unincorporated and appears in the CDP table below. Takoma Park’s population
\nfigure is citywide; part of the city’s built-up east side actually sits across the line in Prince
\nGeorge’s County.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Place<\/th>\nType<\/th>\nPop.<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Germantown<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n91,249<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Silver Spring<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n81,015<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bethesda<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n68,056<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wheaton<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n52,510<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Aspen Hill<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n51,063<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
North Bethesda<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n50,094<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Potomac<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n47,018<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Olney<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n35,820<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Montgomery Village<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n34,893<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Clarksburg<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n29,051<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fairland<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n25,396<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
North Potomac<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n23,790<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Redland<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n18,592<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Calverton<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n17,316<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Damascus<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n17,224<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Glenmont<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n16,710<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
White Oak<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n16,347<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Colesville<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n15,421<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cloverly<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n15,285<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Flower Hill<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n14,108<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kemp Mill<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n13,378<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Travilah<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n11,985<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chevy Chase<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n10,176<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Burtonsville<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n9,498<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
North Kensington<\/td>\nCDP<\/td>\n9,497<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Beyond these 25, another dozen or so smaller CDPs are on record, among them Ashton-Sandy Spring,
\nDarnestown, Forest Glen, Layhill, Leisure World, South Kensington, Spencerville and Ten Mile
\nCreek. None of Montgomery’s CDPs has its own government; each is governed directly by the county
\nand, for the parts inside the Washington Beltway, often also by a citizens’ advisory board.<\/p>\n

ZIP Codes<\/h2>\n

Montgomery County uses roughly sixty ZIP codes in the 20812–20918 range, too many to list
\nindividually. Rockville’s core ZIP is 20850, with 20851 through 20855 covering the rest of the
\ncity; Gaithersburg runs 20877 through 20879 plus 20882 and 20886; Bethesda centers on 20814, with
\n20810, 20811, 20816 and 20817 nearby; Silver Spring spans 20901 through 20906 and 20910;
\nGermantown uses 20874 and 20876. Takoma Park is 20912, Potomac is 20854, Olney is 20832, Damascus
\nis 20872 and Poolesville is 20837. Smaller places without a dedicated ZIP, including several of
\nthe unincorporated CDPs east of Route 29, share their mailing code with the nearest post office
\ntown rather than carrying one of their own.<\/p>\n

Geography<\/h2>\n

Montgomery County sits in Maryland’s Piedmont region, sloping from rolling hills in the north
\ndown to the fall line near the Potomac River in the south. Of its total area, 493.11 square miles
\nare land and 13.80 square miles are water — the Potomac forms the county’s entire
\nsouthwestern border, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park runs along that
\nriverbank for the county’s full length. Great Falls, where the Potomac drops through a narrow
\ngorge, is the county’s best-known natural landmark. The northern half of the county, around
\nDamascus and Poolesville, stays largely agricultural and is protected under Maryland’s
\nAgricultural Reserve, a zoning district that has kept roughly a third of the county’s land
\nundeveloped since 1980.<\/p>\n

Frederick County lies to the north and northwest, and Prince George’s County lies to the east
\nand southeast; neither currently has a live profile on this site. The county touches Carroll
\nCounty at a single point to the northeast — Carroll County<\/a>
\n— and shares a longer line with Howard County<\/a>
\nto the east. Washington, D.C. borders the county directly to the south. Across the Potomac to the
\nwest and southwest lie Virginia’s Loudoun County<\/a>
\nand Fairfax County<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Demographics<\/h2>\n

Montgomery County had a population of 1,062,061 at the 2020 census, the largest of any county
\nin Maryland, and the latest estimate puts it near 1,074,582. Germantown and Silver Spring, both
\nunincorporated, are the two largest communities in the county, each outsizing every incorporated
\ncity. Median household income runs about $132,450, well above Maryland’s statewide figure of
\n$98,678 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to roughly 2,154 people per square mile of land,
\namong the densest counties in the state outside Baltimore City.<\/p>\n

Economy & Local Life<\/h2>\n

Professional, scientific and technical services is the county’s largest employment sector,
\nfollowed by health care and social assistance and then public administration. The federal
\ngovernment anchors much of that: the National Institutes of Health’s main campus sits in
\nBethesda, the Food and Drug Administration’s White Oak campus is one of the region’s largest
\nfederal worksites, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology is headquartered in
\nGaithersburg. Around that federal core, the county has built one of the country’s larger
\nbiotechnology clusters, with the Interstate 270 corridor through Rockville and Gaithersburg often
\ncalled Maryland’s biotech corridor. Private employers based in the county include Marriott
\nInternational, Lockheed Martin, Adventist HealthCare and GEICO. Montgomery County Public Schools,
\nthe largest school system in Maryland, is the county’s single biggest employer. The county’s
\nbiggest annual event is the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair each August at the fairgrounds in
\nGaithersburg, one of the longest continuously running county fairs in the state.<\/p>\n

History<\/h2>\n

The Maryland General Assembly created Montgomery County on 6 September 1776, carving it out of
\nFrederick County in the same act that created Washington County — the first two Maryland
\ncounties named for Revolutionary War figures rather than English places. The county was named for
\nMajor General Richard Montgomery, killed leading the American assault on Quebec in December 1775.
\nRockville became the county seat in the early 19th century.<\/p>\n

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, built along the county’s Potomac River border between 1828 and
\n1850 to move coal and farm goods to Georgetown, operated until a 1924 flood ended commercial
\ntraffic; the towpath is now a National Historical Park. In the decades before the Civil War, the
\nSandy Spring area in the county’s east was a center of Quaker abolitionist activity and Underground
\nRailroad activity, documented today at the Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park.<\/p>\n

Getting There<\/h2>\n

Interstate 270 runs northwest from the Capital Beltway through Rockville, Gaithersburg and
\nGermantown toward Frederick; Interstate 495, the Capital Beltway, crosses the county’s southern
\nend. US 29 and Maryland Route 355 (Rockville Pike\/Wisconsin Avenue) are the county’s other main
\nnorth-south routes.<\/p>\n