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The demographics of Washington, D.C., also known as the District of Columbia, reflect an ethnically diverse, cosmopolitan, mid-size capital city. In 2014 the District had a population of 658,893 people an increase of more than 36,000 people over the previous year. Washington, D.C., is unique among major U.S. cities in that its founding was not organic, but rather established as a result of a political compromise. The District had relatively few residents during much of its early history up until the Civil War. The presence of the U.S. federal government in Washington has been instrumental in the city's later growth and development. Its role as the capital leads people to forget that Washington has a native resident population. In 2011 Washington’s black population slipped below 50 percent for the first time in over 50 years. The city was a majority-black city from the late 20th century through 2011. Washington has had a significant African-American population since the city's creation; several D.C. neighborhoods are well-noted for their contributions to black history and culture. Like numerous other border and northern cities in the first half of the 20th century, Washington received many black migrants from the South in the Great Migration, who moved North for better education and job opportunities, as well as to escape legal segregation and lynchings. Government growth related to World War II provided economic opportunities for African Americans, too. In the postwar era, the percentage of African Americans in the city steadily increased as its total population declined as a result of suburbanization supported by federal highway construction, and white flight. The black population included a strong middle and upper class. Since the 2000 U.S. Census, the city has reversed some population losses. The District has experienced an increase in the proportion of white, Asian, and Hispanic residents, and a decline in the city's black population. Some of the latter have moved to the suburbs; others have moved to new opportunities in the South in a New Great Migration. ==Historical population== Washington, D.C., was established to be the new United States capital and is largely a planned city. However, there were already a number of settlements within the federal territory when it was created in 1790. Most important of these settlements were the cities of Georgetown, founded in 1751, and Alexandria, Virginia (then included in the District), founded in 1749. Together these two cities had most of the District's early residents. The populations of each place were counted separately from that of the City of Washington until Alexandria was returned to Virginia in 1846, and until the District of Columbia was formed into a single municipality in 1871. In 1790, Alexandria had a population of 2,748. By 1800, the City of Washington had a population of 3,210, Georgetown had 2,993, and Alexandria had 4,971. The District's population remained small in comparison to other major U.S. cities. In 1860, directly prior to the Civil War, the District had about 75,000 residents, far smaller than such major historical port cities as New York at 800,000 or Philadelphia at more than 500,000. It is notable that Washington had a large African-American population even prior to the Civil War, and most were free people of color, not slaves. Due to slaveholders' manumission of slaves in the Upper South after the American Revolutionary War, the free black population in those states climbed markedly from an estimated 1% before the war to 10% by 1810. Since many states did not permit free blacks to stay after gaining freedom, they often relocated to the District; in 1860, approximately 80% of the city's African-American residents were free blacks. Following the Civil War, the District's population jumped 75% to more than 130,000.〔 Washington's population continued to grow throughout the late nineteenth century as Irish-American, German-American and Jewish-American immigrant communities formed in the areas surrounding downtown. By 1900, the city's growth had spread to the more residential sections beyond the old Florida Avenue boundary line following the development of the city's streetcar lines along major arteries such as Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Connecticut Avenue, Wisconsin Avenue, Georgia Avenue, 14th Street and 16th Street. By 1930, development within the District's boundaries was largely complete, with the exception of a few outlying areas in far Northeast and Southeast and the city's population totalled just under 500,000. In response to the Great Depression in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation expanded the bureaucracy in Washington. World War II further increased government activity and defense contracting, adding to the number of federal employees in the capital. People came from across the country to work in wartime Washington. By 1950, the District's population reached a peak of 802,178 residents. Shortly thereafter, in a pattern repeated across the country, the city began losing residents attracted to newer housing in the suburbs, with commutes made easier by an expanded highway network outside the city. Following social unrest and riots in the 1960s, plus increasing crime, by 1980 Washington had lost one-quarter of its population.〔 After the achievements of civil rights, more of the city's middle-class black population also moved to the suburbs. The city's population continued to decline until the late 1990s. Gentrification efforts started to transform the demographics of distressed neighborhoods.〔 Recently, a trend of growth since the 2000 U.S. Census provided the first rise in the District's population in 50 years.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=Search&_name=&_state=04000US11&_county=&_cityTown=&_zip=&_sse=on&_lang=en&pctxt=fph )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Demographics of Washington, D.C.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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