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Chocolate City has no majority.
For the first time since the 1950s, African-Americans no longer make up at least 50 percent of the District’s population, according to data released today from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Just 49.6 percent of D.C.’s population identified as black or African American, 40.2 percent white, and 9.9 percent Hispanic or Latino.
The District’s overall population has grown more than 8.4 percent as compared with its level in 2010. Since that year, the share of white residents has risen just over two percentage points (from 38.1 percent of the total population), whereas that of black residents has gone down by more than three percentage points (from 52.9 percent). Those changes, while hiding the fact that the absolute numbers of both white and black people in D.C. have increased by the thousands since 2010, reveal that the white population is growing at a quicker rate. From 2010 to 2014, the relative share of Hispanic/Latino residents jumped about 1 percent while that of Asian residents rose just 0.1 percent.
As of last year, an estimated 633,736 people lived in D.C.. The biggest share of those residents, 22.1 percent, were between the ages of 25 and 34, while the second largest share, 13.7 percent, were between 35 and 44. In terms of education, nearly 90 percent of D.C. denizens had a least a high-school diploma in 2014. But only 53.4 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher. Still, both of those shares grew from their 2010 levels, by 2.4 and 4.2 percentage points, respectively. Median and mean household income are also up by more than $10,000: in 2014, the former was $69,235 and the latter was $104,615. Those reported increases in income among District dwellers come as many counties across the country experienced reported decreases:
The census data also lends evidence to what many know anecdotally about D.C.: A large portion of people who live here are burdened by their housing costs, meaning they contribute more than 30 percent of their income towards rent. In 2014, the survey finds, roughly half of residents paid above that threshold on gross rent; median rent rose 22.5 percent from 2010, and reached $1,302 last year.
Screenshots via U.S. Census Bureau