District residents are decamping to the suburbs, while more people are settling in the farther reaches of Virginia and Maryland, according to Census data released Thursday.
More than 40,700 residents left D.C. in the first four years after the 2000 Census, roughly 10,176 per year, according to the data. Between 1990 and 2000, 146,480 people moved out of D.C., so the trend is slowing. The figures do not include births, deaths or immigrants, which tend to offset the so-called “outmigration” numbers.
Vince Morris, spokesman for Mayor Anthony Williams, said the city disputes the data.
“Historically the Census Bureau has always had trouble counting urban populations, because they don’t count people, they estimate,” Morris said.
Regionally, the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan area lost 4,124 residents per year between 2000 and 2004. Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, meanwhile, suffered only minor losses during the same period.
“There’s a movement outward, and I think it’s a movement of affordability,” said William Frey, of the Brookings Institution.
Statewide, Maryland has turned its population trends around while Virginia continues to be a popular settling destination.
More than 57,000 people migrated out of Maryland during the 1990s, but 21,680 people moved into the state between 2000 and 2004. Virginia picked up residents in both statistical periods, 120,548 between 1990 and 2000 and 82,141 between 2000 and 2004.
Coming and going
» 12,135 people moved to Loudoun County per year during the same period.
» 14,082 left Fairfax County per year.
