One Million DC Residents By 2045?

• March 26th 2018

by Nena Perry-Brown

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Over the past two years, estimates have stated and restated that the District of Columbia will have nearly 1 million residents by 2045. However, a pair of recent analyses cast doubt on the timing of that prognosis.

A recent George Mason University report states that the U.S. Census Bureau released estimates showing that the population in the DC area increased by 65,908 between July 2016 and July 2017. This marks the third consecutive year with a roughly 1 percent rise in population.

However, the report also notes that this is the fourth consecutive year with net domestic out-migration rather than in-migration. There has also been a drop in the net amount of international migration and a smaller natural population increase via births in the region.

On the other hand, a District, Measured report shows that DC proper saw a population increase of 1.4 percent over the same time frame, hitting 693,972 residents with net increases in the following three categories -- domestic, natural and international. The city was also the only regional locality where net domestic migration increased, albeit by nearly 1,800 fewer people than in the prior year when the total population increased by 1.7 percent.

Despite a slowdown in population growth, the city reaching nearly 694,000 residents represents an impressive turn-around from a 1998 low of 566,000. DC's population peaked in 1941, when there were 900,000 residents, but the city hasn't been this close to 700,000 residents since 1976. While the District continues to attract residents and job-seekers from across the country (and the world), barring an Amazon headquarters-level influx, the city may be a little further from the one million-resident mark than currently projected. 

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc-inching-ever-slower-toward-one-million-residents/13744.