On Friday, I attended the Nationals game against the visiting Cubs, where the transfer of ownership from MLB to Ted Lerner had prompted a “reopening” of the old park, complete with red carpets, giveaways, and marching bands. The celebration drew an announced crowd of about 35,000, slightly more than the amount by which the Census Bureau revised the District’s population upward on Saturday, according to the Washington Post. That stadium-full (nearly—still 10k short of filling the Bobby) means that D.C. is actually home to around 582,000 people, well more than stated in Census’ original 2005 estimate (about 550,000) and more even than the number assigned to us in the 2000 Census, when we weighed in at around 572,000 souls.

Mayor Williams immediately seized upon the news, noting that we were now well on our way to attracting the 100,000 new District residents he’d promised us, and Brookings Institution scholar William Frey quotably called the revision, “a big deal.” The Census count is important in allocating federal funds for a number of programs, and it means that any risk we faced of falling behind Wyoming in “state” population rankings is unquestionably eliminated, but beyond that, what does this mean for D.C.? Is it a Big Deal?