How has DC changed in 10 years? DataLensDC takes a look

Today, D.C.’s population stands at almost 700,000 — a four-decade high. But who are these 700,000 residents and how are they different than they were ten years ago?

For questions like this we turn to DataLensDC — Kate Rabinowitz’s exploration of city trends through data. Her latest blog post, originally written for the new D.C. Policy Center think tank, shows how race, income and age has changed in D.C.’s various neighborhoods between 2006-2011 and 2011-2015.

Here, for example, is the map showing change in racial demographics of the city:

(Image via DataLensDC)

The overall takeaway?

Yes, D.C. is whiter and wealthier and younger than it was a decade ago. But the effect is not the same in all neighborhood clusters. In some places, this trend doesn’t show up at all, Rabinowitz noted. But in others, it comes out in force.

“No neighborhood has changed more dramatically on these measures than Navy Yard, which stood out in each map for having the most significant change,” Rabinowitz writes. “The Navy Yard neighborhood saw a 29% increase in the proportion of white residents, an 18% increase in the proportion of households earning over $100,000, and a 15% increase in the proportion of young residents ages 22-34.”

Given this information, even the geographically-challenged should be able to spot the Navy Yard on the map above. It’s an impressively strong shift but, as Rabinowitz also points out, fairly easily explained by the rapid development of the area.

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