ACS and Census Data

Principal Investigator: Tanya Golash-Boza. Contributors: Louis Perez

Mapping change

How Can We Measure Gentrification and Racial Change in Washington, DC?

Anyone who visited or lived in the nation’s capital in the twentieth century would easily conclude that the city has changed. See, for example, these two photos of downtown DC – one from the 1980s and one from 2017.

The image shows the corner of 7th and T Streets NW in the 1980s. Click on the arrow to the right to view the corner of 7th and T Streets NW in 2017.

This website uses a variety of tools to measure visible changes such as these. By quantifying these changes, we can show which neighborhoods in the city have changed the most, and compare these measures of visible change to other indicators at the Census tract level. In this case, the area around 7th and T Streets NW has changed dramatically: the number of Black residents has declined precipitously, and the number of high-income residents has increased. But, do these visible indicators of change always correlate with socio-economic changes? Our housing survey allows us to assess the extent to which these indicators correlate both with socio-economic changes and with other indicators such as arrest rates.

How Can We Measure Gentrification and Racial Change in Washington, DC?

Anyone who visited or lived in the nation’s capital in the twentieth century would easily conclude that the city has changed. See, for example, these two photos of downtown DC – one from the 1980s and one from 2017.

The image shows the corner of 7th and T Streets NW in the 1980s. Click on the arrow to the right to view the corner of 7th and T Streets NW in 2017.

This website uses a variety of tools to measure visible changes such as these. By quantifying these changes, we can show which neighborhoods in the city have changed the most, and compare these measures of visible change to other indicators at the Census tract level. In this case, the area around 7th and T Streets NW has changed dramatically: the number of Black residents has declined precipitously, and the number of high-income residents has increased. But, do these visible indicators of change always correlate with socio-economic changes? Our housing survey allows us to assess the extent to which these indicators correlate both with socio-economic changes and with other indicators such as arrest rates.

Neighborhood-level changes

The maps of racial change make it clear that the city has changed. They also show that the change has not been even as some areas of the city have remained majority Black and others have remained majority White.

Black population decline

Between 2000 and 2018, the Black population declined from 60% to less than 50%. As this map shows, this decline was not even across the city. Some areas experienced much more marked decreases. In tract 72, which is the area near Navy Yard, the Black population declined 72% - the greatest decrease in the city. In contrast, the percent Black increased slightly in a few places.

Please click on the double arrows in the upper-left corner of this map to access a visual detail of the symbols used on this map. Please click on any region of the map to access information on the change in black population.

These maps focus on racial change, but there have also been changes in socioeconomic status, as more college-educated and wealthier people have moved to the city. When highly-educated and high-income people move into a neighborhood that was previously poor, this process is called gentrification.

Gentrification can be measured by neighborhood-level changes in property values, increases in the number of college-educated residents, and changes in median household income. We used these measures to create this map, which shows which neighborhoods have gentrified according to these data.

In this map, we only include tracts that meet one of two eligibility criteria: 1) they were below the median income in 2000; or 2) they were majority Black in 2000. If they do not meet either of these criteria, we did not calculate their level of gentrification or racial change. The tracts colored white are not eligible for gentrification or racial change. Tracts colored gray are missing data for that measure.

Home value

Between 2000 and 2018, the citywide median increase in home value was 91%. In tract 34, which is the area around Howard University, the increase in home value was 354% - the highest in the city. In contrast, in tract 76.03 in SE near the Maryland border, housing prices decreased 14% - from $258,270 in 2000 to $221,700 in 2018 (in constant 2018 dollars).

Please click on the double arrows in the upper-left corner of this map to access a visual detail of the symbols used on this map. If you click on the map, you can see the change in median home value for each eligible tract.

Median household income

Between 2000 and 2018, the citywide median of  median household income  in DC increased from $60,276 to $85,750, an increase of 29.7%.

In tract 72, which is the area near Navy Yard, the increase in median income was 872% - the highest in the city. In contrast, in tract 74.01 in SE where the Barry Farm Dwellings housing project is located, median household income decreased 34%.

Please click on the double arrows in the upper-left corner of this map to access a visual detail of the symbols used on this map. If you click on the map, you can see the change in median home value for each eligible tract. You also will notice that a fair number of tracts experienced a decrease in income as those are all shaded orange. 

College degree

In 2000, 39.1% of DC residents over the age of 25 had a  college degree . By 2018, 57.6% had a college degree – constituting a 32.1% increase citywide.

In tract 72, which is the area near Navy Yard, the increase in percent college educated was 80% - the highest in the city. Although most Census tracts experienced an increase, there were six that experienced a decrease, including tract 98.03, near Congress Heights in SE, where the percent college educated decreased from 11% to 7%.

Please click on the double arrows in the upper-left corner of this map to access a visual detail of the symbols used on this map. Click on any indicator to access information about the change in college educated population.