Washington DC grew last year. Many other prominent cities did not. Feel lucky that DC was on the grow list. We've been growing very slowly for nearly 10 years, and although much time will pass before we reach Anthony Williams' goal of 100,000 new citizens, we may soon be able to claim 20,000 additional resident above our year 2000 level. The latest Census estimates for July 2007, gave DC 588,292, nearly 3,000 more residents than July 2006, and 16,000 more than July 2000.The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments also reported that the region as a whole added 275,000 people over the last four years alone. During the same period, the region added 182,000 jobs, including 29,000 in DC. There are now more than 5.3 million people living in the Washington DC metropolitan area; including counties as far away as Spotsylvania, Frederick and Warren. Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George's counties are still the population leaders in the region with 1 million, 931,000 and 828,000 respectively.
The District, however fell off of the list of largest cities in the United States. Denver and Seattle quietly surpassed DC to bump us out of the top 25. Other cities with larger populations than DC include El Paso, Fort Worth, Columbus and Jacksonville. DC will most likely hold the 27th spot for the foreseeable future though; we have 30,000+ residents more than the next closest, Las Vegas and Louisville, KY. Some of the biggest losers since the year 2000, not including New Orleans for obvious reasons, were Philadelphia (-68,000), Cleveland (-39,000) and Detroit (-34,000). Nine cities topped 1,000,000 in population. The leaders have not changed: New York, NY (8.2 mill), Los Angeles (3.8 mill), Chicago (2.8 mill) and Houston (2.2 mill). The other large local cities were Baltimore (637,000), Richmond (200,000) and Alexandria (140,000).
I swear it seems 50,000 people have moved into DC over the last few years, but I know many have moved on and moved out, keeping the transient flavor alive. Just hope we can crack that top 25 again by 2010. It's an ego thing I guess.
