The number of white residents in Washington’s suburbs has dropped significantly in the past decade, a shift experts say will continue to increase over the years as the population ages.
Meanwhile, the number of whites has risen in the more bucolic,
outlying counties and in the District, where urban renewal has attracted new generations of professionals.
Although every county in the region is becoming more diverse as their minority percentages
increase, the change is accompanied by fewer non-Hispanic white residents in Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, new census data show.
“Whites are aging the quickest, so we can expect to see this continue,” said Audrey Singer, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “The nonwhite population here is younger overall, particularly among the Hispanic and Asian populations.”
Coupled with a declining birthrate among whites — the lowest of the four major demographic groups — Washington is at the forefront of a national trend among the nation’s youth that is set to put minorities in the majority.
Maryland lost more than 128,000 white residents in the past decade, mostly in the Washington suburbs, as Montgomery and Charles counties joined Prince George’s County as jurisdictions where minority residents are the majority.
Virginia gained more than 220,000 white residents, with Fairfax County the only Northern Virginia county to lose white residents.
Washington’s growth in the past two decades has been driven almost solely by immigration and the “higher fertility rates of the foreign-born population,” according to a George Mason University study.
Those who have moved to the outer suburbs or the District, where the white population has been increasing, say they wanted to change their lifestyles.
Martine Rossignol, a French-born divorcee, said she is moving from Montgomery County to D.C. for the social scene, which felt too far away in the suburbs. Brendan Chandonnet, 31, who moved from Courthouse to Glover Park with his wife, echoed the sentiment.
“Even though it’s just across the river, it feels so remote in the suburbs when you work in the city,” he said.
According to a Brookings report, the hot housing market in the earlier half of the past decade drew many residents well beyond the Beltway.
“The bulk of the movement to newer outer suburbs and exurbs represented local movers, from inner parts of the same metropolitan area,” the report said.
Donna Gharavinia, who moved with her husband to a 3-acre property in Loudoun County after living in a Fairfax County town house for 20 years, said she doesn’t miss it.
“It just got so busy with all the hustle and bustle,” she said.
| White flight from D.C. suburbs | ||||
| Non-Hispanic whites | Total percentage | Percent under 18yrs | Total change from 2000 | |
| Maryland | 3,157,958 | 54.7 | 46.5 | -128,589 |
| Montgomery County | 478,765 | 49.3 | 41.4 | -40,553 |
| Prince George’s County | 128,853 | 14.9 | 7.2 | -65,983 |
| Anne Arundel County | 389,386 | 72.4 | 64.6 | -1,133 |
| Calvert County | 70,680 | 79.7 | 75.7 | +8,786 |
| Charles County | 70,905 | 48.4 | 37.7 | -10,206 |
| Frederick County | 181,645 | 77.8 | 69.8 | +9,679 |
| Howard County | 169,962 | 59.2 | 51.1 | -10,038 |
| Virginia | 5,186,450 | 64.8 | 56.8 | +220,813 |
| Arlington County | 132,961 | 64.0 | 52.9 | +18,472 |
| Culpeper County | 33,482 | 71.7 | 65.4 | +7,069 |
| Fairfax County | 590,622 | 54.6 | 47.6 | -33,674 |
| Loudoun County | 194,845 | 62.4 | 58.4 | +59,873 |
| Prince William County | 195,656 | 48.7 | 40.7 | +13,900 |
But demographers note that the decline of whites in the D.C. suburbs is more because of the population’s stagnancy.
“It’s not just because we’re intermarrying and because of new immigrants,” Singer said. “It’s also due to the fact that the white population is aging and is going to shrink through death.”
The region’s youth population, which is more diverse than the adults, gives a sneak peak into the years to come.
Prince George’s County is the starkest example, where non-Hispanic whites make up just 7 percent of the youth population, compared with 14 percent of the total population. The county saw the largest drop in white residents over the past 10 years.
Of Maryland’s population under the age of 18, less than half are white, as are Fairfax County’s youths. Youths in Howard County are nearly evenly split between whites and minorities.
Staff Writer Caitlin Byrnes contributed to this report.
