Demographics of Washington, D.C.

The demographics of the District of Columbia are ethnically diverse in the cosmopolitan federal district. In 2018, the District had a population of 702,455 people, with a resident density of 11,515 people per square mile.
The District of Columbia had relatively few residents until the Civil War. The presence of the U.S. federal government in Washington has been instrumental in the city's later growth and development. Its role as the capital leads people to forget that the District of Columbia has a native resident population.
In 2011, the District of Columbia's black population slipped below 50 percent for the first time in over 50 years. The District was a majority-black district from the late 1950s through 2011. The District of Columbia has had a significant African-American population since the District's creation; several neighborhoods are noted for their contributions to black history and culture. Like numerous other border and northern cities in the first half of the 20th century, the District of Columbia received many black migrants from the South in the Great Migration. African Americans moved north for better education and job opportunities, as well as to escape legal segregation and lynchings. Government growth during World War II provided economic opportunities for African Americans, too.
In the postwar era, the percentage of African Americans in the District steadily increased as its total population declined as a result of suburbanization, supported by federal highway construction, and white flight. The black population included a strong middle and upper class.
Since the 2000 U.S. Census, the District has added more than 120,000 residents and reversed some of the population losses seen in previous decades. The growth is speeding up; the population has increased more than 100,000 since the 2010 Census. The proportion of white, Asian, and Hispanic residents has increased, and the proportion of black residents has decreased, the latter mostly moving to the suburbs.
History.
The District of Columbia was established to host the new United States capital, the City of Washington. However, there were already many settlements within the federal territory when it was created in 1790. Most important of these settlements were the cities of Georgetown, founded in 1751, and Alexandria, Virginia (then included in the District), founded in 1749. Together these two cities had most of the District's early residents. The populations of each place were counted separately from that of the City of Washington until Alexandria was returned to Virginia in 1846, and until the District of Columbia was formed into a single entity in 1871. In 1790, Alexandria had a population of 2,748. By 1800, the City of Washington had a population of 3,210, Georgetown had 2,993, and Alexandria had 4,971.
The District's population remained small in comparison to other major U.S. cities. In 1860, directly before the Civil War, the District had about 75,000 residents, far smaller than such major historical port cities as New York at 800,000 or Philadelphia at more than 500,000. It is notable that the District of Columbia had a large African-American population even before the Civil War, and most were free people of color, not slaves. Due to slaveholders' manumission of slaves in the Upper South after the American Revolutionary War, the free black population in those states climbed markedly from an estimated 1% before the war to 10% by 1810. Since many states did not permit free blacks to stay after gaining freedom, they often relocated to the District; in 1860, about 80% of the District's African-American residents were free blacks.
Following the Civil War, the District's population jumped 75% to more than 130,000. The District of Columbia's population continued to grow throughout the late nineteenth century as Irish-American, German-American, and Jewish-American immigrant communities formed in downtown areas. Many immigrants escaping severe poverty and antisemitism moved to the US and found refuge in the District. By 1900, the District's growth had spread to the more residential sections beyond the old Florida Avenue boundary line following the development of the District's streetcar lines along major arteries such as Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Connecticut Avenue, Wisconsin Avenue, Georgia Avenue, 14th Street, and 16th Street. By 1930, development within the District's boundaries was largely complete, except for a few outlying areas in far Northeast and Southeast. The District's population totaled just under 500,000. In response to the Great Depression in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation expanded the bureaucracy in the District of Columbia. World War II further increased government activity and defense contracting, adding to the number of federal employees in the capital. People came from across the country to work in wartime in the District of Columbia. By 1950, the District's population reached a peak of 802,178 residents.
Shortly after that, in a pattern repeated across the country, the District began losing residents attracted to newer housing in the suburbs, with commutes made easier by an expanded highway network outside the District. Following social unrest and riots in the 1960s, plus increasing crime, by 1980, the District of Columbia had lost one-quarter of its population. After the achievements of civil rights, more of the District's middle-class black population also moved to the suburbs. The District's population continued to decline until the late 1990s. Gentrification efforts started to transform the demographics of distressed neighborhoods. Recently, a trend of growth since the 2000 U.S. Census provided the first rise in the District's population in 50 years.
Statistics.
Population.
In 2018, the U.S. Census Bureau data estimated the District's population at 702,455 residents, continuing a trend of population growth in the District since the 2000 Census, which recorded 572,059 residents. During the workweek, the number of commuters from the suburbs into the city swells the District's population by an estimated 71.8%, to a daytime population of over one million people. The Washington Metropolitan Area, which includes the surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia, is the eighth-largest in the United States, with more than five million residents. When combined with Baltimore and its suburbs, the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area has a population exceeding eight million residents, the fourth-largest in the country.
There were 281,475 households within the District in 2017. About 45% of those were householders living alone. There were also 119,357 family households; about 20% of homes had children under 18. Of those families with children, 56% were those headed by a married couple. The average household size was 2.32, and the average family size was 3.40.
Ethnic composition.
According to 2017 Census Bureau data, the population of the District of Columbia was 47.1% Black or African American, 45.1% White (36.8% non-Hispanic White), 4.3% Asian, 0.6% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Individuals from two or more races made up 2.7% of the population. Hispanics of any race made up 11.0% of the District's population.
DC is also home to people of more than 170 nationalities and ethnic groups, making it one of the most diverse cities in the United States.
In 2007, an estimated 74,000 immigrants lived in the District of Columbia. Major sources of immigration have included El Salvador, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Guatemala, and China. A concentration of Salvadorans have settled in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
D.C. has a steadily declining African-American population, as many middle-class and professional African Americans have moved to the suburbs, mostly in Maryland (for example, an African-American majority has developed in Prince George's County) and Northern Virginia, aggravated by the rising cost of living in the area.
African Americans have been the District's largest ethnic group since the 1950s. In 1970, 71.1% of the population identified as Black. But in recent years the number of European Americans in the District has increased. Some have occupied gentrified areas in traditionally black neighborhoods. Since 2000 there has been a 7.3% decrease in the African-American population and a 17.8% increase in the Caucasian population. Many African Americans have moved out of the District to the suburbs. In addition, some African Americans are migrating to other parts of the South in a New Great Migration because of family ties, increased opportunities, and lower cost of living.
The Metro DC Area is the second-most popular destination for African immigrants, after New York City. More than 161,000 African-born people live in DC and nearby suburbs. This includes Nigerians with 19,600 residents and Ghanaians with 18,400. By far, the largest concentration of Ethiopians in the United States are found in D.C. and the local metro area. Some conservative estimates put the number at around 75,000 residents. In contrast, other estimates are as high as 250,000 Ethiopians in DC and surrounding neighborhoods.
While the White population of DC represents 43.6% of the total, part of this grouping includes European-born residents. There are 18,359 foreign-born European DC residents. The largest groups include 2,407 from the United Kingdom, 2,271 from Germany, 2,103 from France, and 899 from Italy. There are also many diaspora groups in DC including from the Irish community, the Italian community, the Syrian community, to name a few. Another significant Caucasian community from the Caucasus region in the District includes Armenian-Americans, with about 8,000 residents estimated in 2003. There are also an estimated 2,700 D.C. residents of Lebanese descent.
Historically, European immigrant neighborhoods in DC have included the Irish neighborhoods of Swampoodle, currently known as NOMA (North of Massachusetts Ave), and Foggy Bottom during the latter part of the 19th century and the Italian neighborhood of Judiciary Square, that have both since ceased to be primarily populated with residents from these ethnic groups. German-Jewish immigrants settled in the neighborhoods of Cleveland Park and Forest Hills and neighborhoods east of Rock Creek Park such as Petworth, Brightwood, and Crestwood at the beginning of the 20th century. Greek immigrants settled in the downtown area of the District at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries and established the parish of Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Church on 8th and L Streets NW.
Per the 2017 American Community Survey, the Hispanic population in DC is 76,526 (11% of the population). The Hispanic population in the neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia is 742,000; 512,000 live in Virginia (9% of Virginia population) and 230,000 living in Maryland (9.5 of Maryland population). The largest Hispanic groups are Salvadoran (19,674 or 25.7% of District of Columbia's 76,526 Hispanics) and Mexicans (16,912 or 22.1%). In 1976 Walter Washington, Mayor of the District of Columbia, created the Office of Latino Affairs of the District of Columbia. A near majority of DC Hispanics are from Northern Central America and Mexico, with Salvadorans making up the largest group in the city and the metropolitan area as a whole. There are also large numbers of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Colombians. Although sizable and growing, the Caribbean Hispanic population, particularly Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, is nowhere near as large and dominant as in other major cities further north up the East Coast. Many Hispanics live in the majority-Hispanic Mt Pleasant neighborhood and other areas close to it in the city's Northwest section; however, some live in majority-white or black neighborhoods. The DC Hispanic/Latino community is very diverse and somewhat scattered in some areas.
Asian-American residents make up 3% of the total population of DC. This includes 16,788 foreign-born residents. The largest groups include 5,476 residents from China, 1,843 from the Philippines, and 1,355 from Korea.
Languages.
The most spoken language in DC is English, followed by Spanish(8.8% of the population), spoken largely by Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and other Latin Americans. Following English and Spanish, the other largest languages spoken in DC are French (1.5%), Amharic (1.2%), Chinese (0.8%), West African languages (0.4%), Arabic (0.3%), Tagalog (0.3%), Italian (0.3%), Russian (0.3%), Hindi (0.2%), Korean(0.2%), Persian (0.2%), Japanese (0.1%), East African languages (0.1%), and Vietnamese (0.1%).
2019 United States Census estimates.
According to 2019 US Census Bureau estimates, DC's population was 45.4% Black or African American, 42.5% White (37.3% Non-Hispanic White and 5.2% Hispanic White), 4.1% Asian, 4.4% Some Other Race, 0.3% Native American and Alaskan Native, 0.1% Pacific Islander and 3.3% from two or more races.
The Black population remains the most prominent racial category in DC and includes 11.5% of Hispanics who self-identify as Black. The remainder of Hispanics self-identify as White (46.4%), Some Other Race (35.8%), Multiracial (5.4%), American Indian and Alaskan Native (0.3%), Asian (0.5%), and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.1%).
If Hispanics are treated as a separate category from race, DC's population was 44.2% Black or African American, 37.3% White Non-Hispanic, 11.3% Hispanic-Latino, 4.0% Asian, 0.3% Some Other Race, 0.2% Native American and Alaskan Native, 0.1% Pacific Islander and 2.7% from two or more races.
White Americans remain the largest minority group at either 42.5% (including White Hispanics) or 37.3% (excluding White Hispanics).
By ethnicity, 11.3% of the total population is Hispanic-Latino (of any race), and 88.7% is Non-Hispanic (of any race). If treated as a category separate from race, Hispanics are the third-largest minority group in DC.
DC has a very diverse Hispanic population. The largest ancestry group of Hispanics in DC are of Salvadoran descent (24.4% of Hispanics) followed by Mexican descent (15.4%), Puerto Rican descent (7.7%), Dominican descent (7.4%), Cuban descent (6.0%), Colombian descent (5.9%), Guatemalan descent (4.7%), Honduran descent (3.7%), Nicaraguan descent (3.7%), Peruvian descent (3.2%), Venezuelan descent (2.7%), Panamanian descent (1.6%), Argentinian descent (1.5%), Costa Rican descent (1.2%), Uruguayan descent (1.1%), and those of other Hispanic ethnicity or of mixed Hispanic ethnicity (9.8%).
Birth data.
"Note: Births in table do not correlate as Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number."
Literacy rate.
A 2007 report found that about one-third of the District of Columbia residents are functionally illiterate, compared to a national rate of about one in five. This is attributed in part to immigrants who are not proficient in English. A 2005 study showed that 85.16% of the District of Columbia residents age five and older speak only English at home and 8.78% speak Spanish. French is the third-most-spoken language at 1.35%.
In contrast to the high rate of functional illiteracy, nearly 46% of D.C. residents 25 and older have at least a four-year college degree, and 25% have a graduate or professional degree. In 2006, the District of Columbia residents had a median family income of $58,526. This has not changed much during the past five years.
LGBT+ population.
A 2012 Gallup Daily tracking poll found 10% of the residents in the District of Columbia were most likely to identify as LGBT+, the highest in the nation.
A 2005 Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy study estimated that 8.1% of the population of DC identified as LGB, the highest in the United States.
The 2000 census revealed that an estimated 33,000 adults in the District of Columbia identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, about 8.1% of the District's adult population.
Religious affiliation.
The Pew Research Center 2014 Religious Landscape Study found that between 14% to 25% of the adult population of the District of Columbia are non-theistic.
According to data from 2000, over 50% of District residents identified as Christian; of these 28% of residents are Catholic, 9.1% are American Baptist, 6.8% are Southern Baptist, 1.3% are Eastern or Oriental Orthodox, and 13% are members of other Christian denominations. Residents who practice Islam make up 2.1% of the population; followers of Judaism compose 4.5%; and 26.8% of residents adhere to other faiths or do not practice a religion. The District hosts the second largest Muslim population in the country who make up 2.1 percent of the District and there are 134 halal restaurants.
Notes.
Alexandria was returned to the state of Virginia in 1846. See: District of Columbia retrocession
Data provided by Until 1890, the U.S. Census Bureau counted the City of Washington, Georgetown, and unincorporated Washington County as three separate areas. The data provided in this article from before 1890 is calculated as if the District of Columbia were a single entity as it is today. To view the population data for each specific area before 1890 see: 