ABSTRACT

The national demographic trends of slower population growth, reduced immigration rates, increased numbers of non family households, an older age-profile, and the revival of nonmetropolitan growth all can be clearly seen in the changing demographic structure on the Maryland landscape. Although suburban growth continues, many of the more rural non metropolitan areas of Maryland also have grown at a rapid rate. Like most of the United States, Maryland has experienced significant demographic changes since 1970. In general, residents of Maryland are affluent, well educated, and well housed. Yet Maryland has particular segments of the population that do not share in the society's generally high standard of living: poor, inner-city dwellers of Baltimore, sharecroppers in southern Maryland, and seasonally unemployed workers in western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore. In 1694 the Maryland General Assembly provided for a free school, the first in what is the United States.