Photo by Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie.We learned back in December that the District broke the 600,000 resident barrier in the 2010 U.S. Census — the first time the District had seen a growth in population in the decennial count since 1950. But today comes the real beef of the survey: this afternoon, the Census Bureau released all the information about the head count at the Census tract level, giving us an intricate view of what areas in the city are growing and which aren’t.
As with any count of 601,723 people, there’s a lot of information to plow through, and people will certainly be breaking down numbers from the Census over the next few days and weeks. Of course, the Census figures are incredibly important because they determine the boundaries of D.C.’s eight wards and all of its advisory neighborhood commissions, meaning that some people might soon have a new Councilmember to report issues to.
The big winners? Ward 2 and Ward 6 both saw big gains. The 2010 ward average is 75,215 — ward boundaries have to be redrawn when a ward’s population deviates by more than five percent of that average. Based on the results, Ward 2 is above, while Wards 7 and 8 are below. Here’s the 2010 ward-by-ward population count:
- Ward 1: 76,197
- Ward 2: 79,915
- Ward 3: 77,152
- Ward 4: 75,773
- Ward 5: 74,308
- Ward 6: 76,598
- Ward 7: 71,068
- Ward 8: 70,712
The figures show that Ward 2 needs to shed 940 people to meet ward redistricting requirements, while Ward 7 will need to add at least 387 residents and Ward 8 will need to add at least 743. Of course, the process of redrawing the boundaries is a politically feisty one, as Councilmembers battle for promising pieces of land along Census tract lines. Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells and Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry began sparring about it some time ago. (Hell, some people are still upset about that the shift of communities from Ward 3 into Ward 4 that occurred after the 2000 Census.) So where those residents will shift from is still very much up in the air — a special Council committee of Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans and At-Large Councilmembers Phil Mendelson and Michael A. Brown, will be responsible for where the new lines will be drawn. It will be very interesting indeed to see where the committee ends up cutting from Ward 2, considering Evans’ involvement.
A complete copy of the District’s data can be downloaded from the Census’ website. (If you don’t want to download the file, the data will be available here at some point.)
