Last week’s Top 10 TODs list was basically subjective. For today, how about something that can be supported using hard data:
Interestingly, 20th Century sprawl champion Fairfax County – the only jurisdiction in the region with over a million residents – is now the slowest growing jurisdiction in the region, save for shrinking Prince George’s. A strong back-to-the-center movement is visible, as Arlington and Alexandria are both growing faster than any of the Beltway counties, and DC doing better than two out of the three. Even in real, non-percentage terms, more people moved into both Washington and Arlington than into Fairfax between 2005-2008.
Note: An earlier version of this post indicated that the District of Columbia was growing substantially faster. That information was incorrect. It didn’t reflect the 2006 census revision which increased the estimate for the District’s population. The census’ 2005 estimates page doesn’t indicate that the numbers are uncorrected, so I only discovered the error when checking against baseline data in the 2007 estimates. Apologies for any confusion or misdirected celebration.
