Most Montgomery County Residents Commute Within the County

New figures that belie the soul-crushing traffic heading out of Montgomery County each morning show that most people living in the county also work in the county.

Between 2006 and 2010, about 59 percent of Montgomery County residents commuted within the county, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. During the day, Montgomery County loses just about 3.2 percent of residents to commutes elsewhere. 

The information is part of a new project called "Journey to Work," which the bureau designed to help community leaders compare how their county's daytime population differs from the resident population. The data is helpful in transportation and disaster relief planning, the bureau said in the project's introduction.

This is the first time the bureau has released such data based on the yearly community survey rather than the once-a-decade census.

Still, people from all over the region travel just south from Montgomery County each day. Washington, D.C. sees a 79 percent swell in its population each day as suburbanites bum-rush the city for work. Prince George's County loses about 13 percent of its population each day. Frederick County loses about 7 percent. Howard County loses less than one percent. 

Part of the reason so many in Montgomery County work nearby is the ratio of jobs to residents, which is just under one job for every resident. By contrast, D.C. has more than 2.5 jobs for every resident and Prince George's County has about three-quarters of a job for every resident.