Growth slowed last year in Baltimore County, Carroll and Harford, the estimates suggest.

Census workers estimate a population decline of about 3,500 people in Baltimore City, which would be a setback from the slight gain in '06 if the figure stands. The city has routinely appealed the counts and ended up with higher numbers, and it anticipates challenging this time around, Kelly Brewington reports today.

Maryland's growth as a whole was slow, which the Baltimore Metropolitan Council's Dunbar Brooks attributes to the economy and housing prices, Brewington reports:

Even before the economy weakened, Maryland's high housing costs drove residents to neighboring states with more affordable housing, he said.

The number of people leaving both the region and the state is what struck me most about the census counts. In the Baltimore metro area, 8,600 more people moved out than moved in. The number of Marylanders moving out of state outnumbered people coming the other direction by about 18,500. In other words, the only true growth is coming from babies born to residents.

Look at the decade as a whole -- 2000 through 2007 -- and both the metro area and the state have more people coming in than out. That means the change has been fairly recent, and housing costs probably are playing a role.