WMAL covered D.C. Policy Center Fellow Mike Maciag’s article on domestic migration in the D.C. region:
THIRD STRAIGHT YEAR: More People Leaving D.C. Area Than Moving In
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) It may not seem like it on the Beltway at rush hour, but the D.C. region, for the third straight year, saw more people leave than come in, according to a report from the D.C. Policy Center.
The report also found the D.C. region bucks the national trend, in that people are still moving into the District itself, while the suburbs are losing residents. In most other metropolitan areas, the city is losing population while the suburbs gain it.
“There was a lot of migration into the region during and immediately following the Recession, but things have really cooled off quite a bit,” the report’s author, Mike Maciag, told WMAL.
The region lost a net total of 31,000 residents to other parts of the country in 2016, the report said. That’s a steep decline from previous years and a startling reversal from years immediately following the Recession in which more people were moving in year over year.
However, the District itself is still enjoying a net positive change in its population.
“What we’re seeing is that the suburbs and all those jurisdictions are losing population, while migration to the District has remained steady,” Maciag said. “What’s happening here is really running counter to national trends. Elsewhere, migration to the suburbs has really picked up recently, with more people moving out of cities, which is a return to the way things were prior to the Recession. But here, the suburbs are actually losing population.”