The Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area (Wake, Johnston, and Franklin counties) grew by 4.3% from July 2007 to July 2008, and is the fasted growing metropolitan area in the country. The nation average was just under 1%, North Carolina grew by 2.0%, and the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area growth rate was 2.5%.
See News & Observer story and News & Observer population estimate tables.
This rapid growth creates several environmental issues such as increased traffic (with increased air pollution), increased use of water, and increased runoff into streams and lakes.
Unless the county and municipalities can regulate and reduce this growth rate, these environmental problems will just get worse. The growth will be self-regulating--when the traffic, environmental, water, and other problems get too bad, people will not want to live here and we will stop growing. However, perhaps we should reduce the growth rate to maintain our quality of life.
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