D.C.’s Overall Population On the Rise as Black Majority Decreases

By Micha Green, AFRO Washington, D.C. Editor, [email protected]

As the nation’s capital, the District of Columbia brings its own savoir-faire of attraction to residents looking to get involved in several careers including, politics, social advocacy, law, nonprofit startups and even the arts.  Between the rise in brand new apartment buildings, and WalletHub naming D.C. the most livable place for millennials in 2018, it comes as no surprise the District’s population has skyrocketed- gaining over 100,000 residents in eight years.

On Dec. 19, the United States Census Bureau released an official count for the District of Columbia; as of July 1 this year, D.C. had 702, 455 residents.  According to a press release from District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office, the population has risen each year since 2006 and soared since the 2010 Census.

Further, state data from the Office of Planning (OP) showed that the District added 6,764 citywide from July 1 of 2017 to July 1, 2018.  Over 4,100 of the escalation was due to natural increase, births (about 9,700 babies) minus deaths, and more than 2,600 residents were gained from net migration.

In February the mayor estimated and celebrated the fact that the population would rise over 700,000 residents at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

“Over the years, we’ve made big investments in making D.C. a great place live, do business, raise a family, and grow old. Our continued growth shows that those investments are paying off,” Mayor Bowser said. “As our growth continues, we’re going to stay very focused on finding new ways to ensure residents across all eight wards—those who just moved here and those whose families have lived here for generations—have access to the amenities and opportunities that make D.C. such a fantastic place to live and work.”

However, with the boom of residents, “Chocolate City” is seeing a decrease in its Black majority.

Currently, the District has 47.1 percent African-American residents, 45.1 percent White residents, 11 percent of the population is made of Latino residents and 4.3 percent are Asian.

While African Americans are still the majority, the number is constantly decreasing. In 2014 African Americans accounted for 49 percent of the population.

These numbers come at a time when the District is also tracking other people of color- particularly immigrants.

The Office of the Mayor, partnered with the Urban Institute, released a report called the “State of Immigrants in the District of Columbia.” Immigrants comprise 15 percent of the District according to statistics from the report that examined residents who moved from Latin America, Asia and Pacific Islands, Africa and the Caribbean.

In the report there were impressive numbers regarding immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, such as 42 percent of African immigrants have at least a four-year college education and 59 percent of Caribbean immigrants in D.C. own their homes.

Collaboratively, District residents from Latin America, Asia and the Pacific Islands, Africa and the Caribbean make up three-fourths of the immigrant population.