The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area outpaced other Northeastern cities in population growth, adding about 39,000 people to its total population, according to an analysis by William Frey, senior demographer at the Brookings Institution. The district alone enrolls approximately 6,000 students, or a medium-sized college. Much of that increase was driven by immigration from abroad.
“The important thing here is that these metropolitan areas are actually coming back,” Frey said. “In 2020 and into 2021, we saw the big metros take a hit. Last year they came back a little bit, but we’re certainly seeing that trend this year.”
American cities across the board are struggling to return to pre-pandemic population levels and growth rates in the face of rising housing costs, increased telework options, and the perception that crime is rising and cities are becoming less safe. I’m having a hard time. However, compared to other large cities in the United States, this district is growing.
“At a macro level, DC has always been a very livable city, with a lot of green space, and very neighborhood-centric. It’s a very unusual city in that sense, and it’s very unique,” says D.C. Planning and Economics. said Deputy Mayor for Development Nina Albert. She added that D.C.’s livability makes the District “more resilient than most other cities.”
The region’s accelerated population growth has done little to help some of the districts hardest hit by pandemic-related shutdowns and the absence of remote workers. Despite Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s $400 million plan to revitalize downtown, office attendance remains below 50 percent, storefronts remain vacant and concerns about the future of the district’s core continues to rise.
Albert said the Census data released Wednesday comes as city officials and business leaders ramp up efforts to draw people downtown in part by increasing opportunities for people to live downtown, and the district is in flux. He said that this indicates that he is in a similar state.
“The investments we’re making are aimed at bringing more residents into the city,” Albert said in an interview this week. “Downtown is going to be filled with residents, but we need to have housing for them.”
Bowser outlined a goal of building enough housing for 15,000 new residents in the downtown area by 2028. This goal would require approximately 3,750 people to move to the region annually. The district’s population growth from 2022 to 2023 exceeded that goal.
“We have a clear direction in which to go,” Albert said. “The private and public sectors are still struggling with how this works.”
Census officials said in a statement that migration patterns within the country have changed over the past few years. Areas that lost residents to the severity of the coronavirus pandemic saw new growth last year. Meanwhile, growth slowed in western U.S. counties such as Arizona and Idaho, where many East Coast city dwellers seek more space and more cost-effective housing.
Southern metropolitan areas continued to be the destination of choice for Americans moving around the country. The 10 counties with the highest net growth rates in the country are all in the South, according to the data. Conversely, the 10 counties with the highest out-migration rates were mostly metropolitan areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and California.
Cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles suffered significant declines in total population last year, despite a steady influx of immigrants, according to the data. Frey said there are more deaths than births and significant out-migration from these areas, tipping the scales so far that even tens of thousands of new immigrants cannot account for the population decline.
The D.C. region was somewhat spared from population decline because birth rates were higher than death rates and there was an influx of immigrants into several counties.
“Our global community is really coming back to the community and the office post-COVID,” Albert said of DC.
Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland. Fairfax County, Virginia. According to Frey’s analysis, the district was in the top 1% of U.S. counties for net international migration in 2022-2023.
“Immigration has been really important over the last two years,” Frey said. “Nearly every metropolitan area and every state saw more immigrants last year than the year before.”
The latest census estimates do not delve into specific demographic information such as race, ethnicity, or age.
