I have written several articles on the demographics of the DC region. Along with series of articles on the demographics of Prince George’s County and on demographic changes in the region over the past fifty years, I’ve written several on-off articles on demographics in the region:
- “There’s a new tool for viewing information about census tracts” (March 2018)
- “2020 Census self-response rates in the Washington, D.C. region” (May 2020)
- “2020 census numbers show where our region is growing and where it isn’t” (August 2021)
I hope to eventually follow up on the voter registration article with a follow-up analysis of voter turnout in different sorts of elections. I’m particularly interested in how different schedules for municipal elections (either synchronized with or separate from state and county elections) affect voter turnout.
Prince George’s County’s Demographics
My home county, Prince George’s County, Maryland, is a significant demographic outlier, as the suburban county in the US with the largest Black population and the highest-income majority-Black county in the country. I have written several articles for Greater Greater Washington analyzing this diversity, the more recent of which is based on my discovery that the county has the majority of the high-income majority-Black Census tracts in the country.
- “Here’s the primer you need to understand Prince George’s extraordinary diversity” (May 2018)
- “Prince George’s County’s belt of high-income majority Black Census tracts really is unique” (November 2020)
In addition, in October 2018, I wrote an article—”Prince George’s sends fewer students to Maryland’s flagship university than other counties. Why?“—discussing the surprising fact that relatively few Prince George’s County students attend the University of Maryland, College Park.
Historical Demographics: 1970-Present
Between July 2019 and January 2020, I wrote a series of four articles for the D.C. Policy Center with maps of population density and race, income, and education demographics in the DC area from 1970 to present, based on data from the National Historical GIS Database:
- “How the D.C. area’s population density has changed since 1970” (cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington)
- “How household incomes in the D.C. area have changed since 1980” (cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington)
- “How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970” (cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington)
- “How the spatial distribution of education levels in the region has changed since 1970” (cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington)
I hope to eventually extend this analysis back to 1860 or earlier by hand-entering data from Census reports into minor civil division geometries derived from old maps. However, this will be a major undertaking and I have no estimate of when I will be able to complete it.