New census estimates confirm the continuation of a demographic trend in the majority-black District: It’s getting whiter.

The 2010 Census will confirm just how much whiter, but the Washington Post reports today that, between 2000 and 2008, D.C. lost about 27,000 African-American residents while 40,000 whites moved in. The city is now about 54 percent black and 40 percent white—compared to 61 percent black and 34 percent white in 2000. (The black population peaked in 1970 at 71 percent.)

The Asian and Hispanic populations have also grown, to 4 percent and 9 percent, respectively—as has the population of the District as a whole.

When will D.C. shift from being majority black to plurality black? Some have said as early as 2014, others predict 2020.