Some amazing interactive graphs show that the Washington DC area continues to attract talented people no matter how much we complain about crime, high prices and traffic gridlock.
Forbes has an interactive map showing where Americans moved in 2008. Put the cursor on a particular county and you can find where people are moving to and from. For instance, massive numbers of people still move from the East Coast to Los Angeles and Orange counties in southern California. But large numbers of southern Californians are moving to Texas, North Carolina and the Pacific Northwest.
In our area the net migration smaller smaller and more balanced. One hundred eighty-two people with an average income per capita of $60,600 moved from Fulton County, Georgia (Atlanta) to Washington, DC in 2008, while 206 people with an average income per capita of $47,903 moved from DC to Atlanta. Seventy-one people with an average income per capita of $33,400 moved from Davidson County, Tennessee (Nashville) to Montgomery County, Maryland, while only 42 with an average income per capita of $32,300 moved from Montgomery County to Nashville. Are large numbers of Chicagoans moving to DC? Have Metro area Texans gone back to Texas? This map won’t tell you why Americans move so much, but it’s clear that they do.
(It’s also clear that you can waste a lot of time tracking the migration routes of your friends and relatives on it.)
Another measure of the attractiveness of our area can be found on Newsweek’s list of the 100 top public high schools in the nation. An impressive 14 are in the Washington metro area. What really constitutes a “top” school, according to Newsweek’s methodology, pertains to the use of advanced placement (AP) college-level courses and tests, a measure that has the advantage of being quantifiable. Newsweek says AP courses are the latest way for high schools to challenge their students to work hard and do well in preparing for college.
Only 1600 of the nation’s public high schools—a mere six percent of the total—use AP or similar tests, so a student who goes to one of these 1600 high schools is already among Newsweek’s “best” high schools. The interactive feature on the Newsweek list lets you click on the school—say, Washington-Lee in Arlington—to learn more about its programs and students, and it lets you post additional information to the site.
More and more smart, mobile and creative people are bringing their talents here. Maybe it’s time to put aside that dismissive phrase, “Inside the Beltway.”
