ReportWire

Tag: hamilton lombard

  • On the Move: As DC region gets older, talent supply isn’t growing – WTOP News

    [ad_1]

    The D.C. region is aging, a shift that experts say is the result of a declining birth rate, expensive housing and flexibility that comes with hybrid or remote work opportunities.

    This story is Part 2 of WTOP’s three-part series “On the Move: The D.C. region’s population trends.” Read Part 1 on the D.C. region becoming more diverse here. 

    The D.C. region is aging, a shift that experts say is the result of a declining birth rate, expensive housing and flexibility that comes with hybrid or remote work opportunities.

    Neighborhoods across the area added more people 65 and older than under 18, according to a WTOP analysis of local census data from the midway point of 2024. The data, released this summer, showed similar trends nationally. Overall, the U.S. population 65 and older rose by over 3%, while the under 18 population decreased by 0.2%, the Census Bureau said.

    In some cases, the result is a war for talent, according to Hamilton Lombard, a demographer at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

    “The talent supply is not really growing,” Lombard said. “We have some immigration, but the number of people turning 18 is going to start shrinking. You’re having communities focusing more on trying to attract workers, and some areas have historically done better than the D.C. area, at least the last decade or so, because they have a lower cost of living, and it makes them more attractive.”

    Major metropolitan areas across the country are aging in similar ways, and it’s a shift that’s partially the result of losing families. The increase in housing prices during the pandemic “just didn’t come back down, and that’s made the D.C. area particularly unaffordable for a lot of families,” Lombard said.

    Some families are moving to the outskirts of the D.C. region, to places such as Hagerstown, Fredericksburg or Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In some cases, those places are seeing a drop in median age, which Lombard described as unusual.

    “There’s just not enough housing, and so housing costs have gotten really expensive in Maryland as a whole, and especially in some of the D.C. suburbs, but also in many of the Baltimore suburbs as well,” said Michael Bader, director of the 21st Century Cities Initiative at Johns Hopkins University. “So that has diminished opportunities here.”

    According to census data as of July 1, 2024, in D.C. 2,013 more people over 65 were added last year, compared to 499 people under 18. In Montgomery County, Maryland, there were over 7,000 more people 65 and older compared to 2023. There were over 1,200 more people under 18 added in 2024. Prince George’s County reported over 350 more people under 18 compared to 2023. Conversely, it added over 6,100 people 65 and older.

    In Fairfax County, Virginia, there were almost 7,000 more people 65 and older compared to 2023. There were 751 more people under 18. Loudoun County reported over 3,017 more people 65 and older, and a drop of over 800 people under 18.

    In Fairfax, Lombard said the number of births is down 20% over the last eight years of data available, double what’s been reported in Virginia.

    “That’s really been driven by families moving out,” Lombard said. “Fairfax County has some of the highest housing prices in the country, definitely some of the highest on the East Coast.”

    Remote and hybrid work schedules provide more flexibility, but Lombard said the region aging comes with consequences.

    “That’s going to be a really big issue when you look at the D.C. area going forward, is how can they continue to bring in young workers when you have all these other areas really competing effectively,” Lombard said.

    When the D.C. area reaches the point when the number of people turning 18 is declining, “if you don’t have more immigration, ultimately you’re going to see the labor force shrink,” Lombard said.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    [ad_2]

    Scott Gelman

    Source link

  • On the Move: Why the DC region is getting more diverse – WTOP News

    [ad_1]

    Immigration and intermarriage are helping the D.C. region become more diverse, experts said.

    This story is Part 1 of WTOP’s three-part series “On the Move: The D.C. region’s population trends.”

    Immigration and intermarriage are helping the D.C. region become more diverse, experts said.

    According to a WTOP analysis of recent census data, neighborhoods across D.C., Maryland and Virginia are all reporting increases in their Hispanic and Asian populations.

    In D.C. and Maryland specifically, immigration is the only factor preventing a population decline, according to Michael Bader, director of the 21st Century Cities Initiative at Johns Hopkins University.

    From July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024, D.C. reported an additional 3,475 people who identify as Asian and 4,514 more people who identify as Hispanic.

    Over that same period in Montgomery County, Maryland, there were 1,746 more people who identify as Asian and 1,723 more people who identify as Hispanic. Nearby Prince George’s County added 1,235 people who identify as Asian and almost 10,000 people identifying as Hispanic.

    In Fairfax County, Virginia, there were 4,757 more people who identify as Hispanic and 6,851 more people who identify as Asian. Prince William and Loudoun counties both reported increases as well.

    “Immigration is really fascinating,” said Hamilton Lombard, a demographer at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center. “The level of immigration we had, it’s hard to say that’s going to continue its influence. When you look at some of the race ethnicity data, immigrants were heavily coming in from Latin America, some are from Asia. That’s really where you see growth.”

    There’s been a “large influx of Latinos” into Maryland, especially from Central America, Bader said. People coming from Central America tend to be younger, and they’re at the time of their lives when they’re more likely to have kids.

    “The region is likely to continue to become increasingly more racially diverse,” Bader said.

    “I do have concerns and curiosity about how the population will change with the current federal administration policies, both related to immigration, but also changes to the federal workforce.”

    It’s going to take several years, Bader said, before the impact can be understood, especially because the 2024 data is from before President Donald Trump’s administration took office.

    Meanwhile, intermarriage is contributing to diversity too.

    About two in five kids born in the U.S. have a parent who has a different racial, ethnic identity than the other parent, Lombard said. So when the population of the D.C. region is diversifying, “most of that’s happening organically. Immigration is a factor, but it’s actually most simply happening through intermarriage.”

    “When you look at race data for the D.C. area, you look at race data nationally, you notice this sort of incredible gradient where the older population tends to identify as one race or ethnicity,” Lombard said. “When you look at the younger population, increasingly, they’re checking multiple boxes, and that’s something we’ll probably see continue happening in the next couple decades.”

    A lot of the D.C. region’s population growth is tied to “the record level of immigration we had in the last couple years of the Biden administration,” Lombard said.

    “If you didn’t have immigration, the region’s population would be declining,” he said.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    [ad_2]

    Scott Gelman

    Source link