DC’s population hits 700,000
DC's 700,000th and 700,001st residents, with their families and the mayor. Image by Mayor Bowser’s press team.
The District of Columbia has unofficially surpassed 700,000 residents. On Friday, February 23, Mayor Bowser ceremonially declared two babies born at Washington Hospital Center as the history-making new residents.
The most recent official US Census population estimate for DC was 693,972, as of July 1, 2017. But with a growth rate that's been steadily bringing about 800 new residents every month, demographers from the DC Office of Planning pegged mid-to-late February of this year as the likely timeframe for crossing the 700,000 threshold.
There's no real way of knowing exactly when the threshold was or will be passed, nor of whom exactly breaks it. But mathematically, it's about now.
It's a remarkable turnaround of 135,000 people from the low point population of 565,000. However, it's still unfortunately well short of the all-time high, when the city’s population peaked at around 900,000 residents.
DC's year-to-year population estimates. Image by Google.