White people aren’t having as many babies as other ethnic groups, the Post reports. Census data shows that 50.4 percent of all infants born in the last year were nonwhite. But in the Washington metro area, trends are a little different: White people in D.C. are having babies!

The District continued its rebound, attracting 16,000 new residents from all age groups — in one year gaining almost as many people as the 20,000 it added the entire previous decade. Although the number of African Americans rose by more than 2,000, their proportion dipped below 50 percent for the first time in decades. Whites had the biggest increase, at 8,000. But among babies, the number of Hispanic infants rose the most as a percentage, up 70 percent, to 1,700. The number of infants who are white also rose sharply, while there were fewer African American babies.

So yes, this means that young white professionals—you know, the childless ones—are coming here and settling in and having kids. It’s hard to predict what that will mean for D.C. 10 or 20 years from now; it’s likely that some will head for the suburbs and more space, but it’ll probably challenge the definition of “Native Washingtonian.”

Also worth noting: Demographics are changing in “Ward 9,” too. In Prince George’s County, the Post notes, “the number of African Americans declined slightly, while Hispanics and whites gained.”

Photo by kodismom via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License