Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages.

Columbia began subsequently the idea that a city could enlarge its residents’ quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse axiom the other community in terms of human values, rather than merely economics and engineering. Opened in 1967, Columbia was meant to not unaccompanied eliminate the inconveniences of then-current subdivision design, but along with eliminate racial, religious and class segregation.

Columbia proper consists deserted of that territory governed by the Columbia Association, but larger areas are included below its declare by the U.S. Postal Service and the Census Bureau. These tally up several other communities which predate Columbia, including Simpsonville, Atholton, and in the prosecution of the census, part of Clarksville. The census-designated place had a population of 104,681 at the 2020 United States Census. It is the second most populous community in Maryland after Baltimore.

Columbia was founded by James W. Rouse (1914-1996), a native of Easton, Maryland. In 1935, Rouse obtained a job in Baltimore with the Federal Housing Administration, a New Deal agency whose intend was to promote home ownership and home construction. This position exposed Rouse to everything phases of the housing industry. Later in the 1930s he co-founded a Baltimore mortgage banking business, the Moss-Rouse Company. In the 1950s his company, by then known as James W. Rouse and Company, branched out into developing shopping centers and malls. In 1957, Rouse formed Community Research and Development, Inc. (CRD) for the strive for of building, owning and energetic shopping centers throughout the country. Community Research and Development, Inc., which was managed by James W. Rouse and Company, became a publicly traded company in 1961. In 1966, Community Research and Development, Inc. changed its declare to The Rouse Company, after it had acquired James W. Rouse and Company in row for company stock.