Tag Archives: Demographics

January 11, 2013 · 10:00 am

Counting Georgetown: Families

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GM’s been going through the recent release of the American Community Survey and seeing what it has to say about Georgetowners. The other day, GM mentioned that the baby boom is continuing in Georgetown. Today he’ll explore that closer, and take a look at what the average family in Georgetown looks like.

According to the ACS, there are 4,187 households in Georgetown (that excludes the GU campus). There are 1,787 households with families in them. A family is defined to be a household with two or more people in it who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption. So it could be a married couple, a family of five, or two siblings. The average family household size in Georgetown is 2.63. Continue reading →

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January 10, 2013 · 10:00 am

Counting Georgetown: Getting to Work

Today, GM digs back into the recently released American Community Survey results issued by the Census Bureau. Specifically, GM is going to explore one of his favorite topics: transportation.

Last year, GM reported that the numbers showed a dramatic reduction of Georgetowners driving to work and a smaller, but still significant, jump in transit use. He is somewhat sorry to say that some of those trends reversed themselves this year.

Here are the year to year comparisons:

2010

2011
Drove Total

31.43%

38.49%
     Drove Alone

28.12%

33.21%
     Carpool

3.31%

5.27%
Transit

24.46%

23.05%
Walked

25.63%

23.78%
Other

5.97%

7.61%
At Home

9.20%

7.08%

The driving totals went almost back to where they were in 2009 and the transit cohort shaved off a few percentages. “Other” is up pretty significantly, which probably reflects the growing numbers of bike commuters.

Before you jump to a conclusion that something happened in 2011 to change people’s behaviors, remember that each of these results reflects a running five year average. So when the 2011 numbers say 23.05% of Georgetowners took transit, it’s really saying that from 2007 to 2011, an average of 23.05% of Georgetowners took transit. So while shifting up a year would affect that somewhat, it’s not a “snapshot”.

The long term trends, though, are still towards transit, walking and “other” (which, on top of biking, also includes motorcycling, Segwaying, and whatever else doesn’t involve a car or public transit.) Continue reading →

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January 8, 2013 · 10:00 am

Georgetown by the Numbers

The new American Community Survey results were released recently for the Census Bureau. They show how the population has shifted from year to year. And Georgetown’s census tracts are among them. As always, they are awfully interesting.

Before GM goes too far, it’s important to remember that the ACS has estimates that are then averaged (over five years in this case). There’s a big error rate too. But it’s good enough for our purposes!

So to lets it then:

According to the ACS, the estimate of Georgetown’s population retracted a bit last year. In 2010, the estimate was 10,315 (this excludes Georgetown’s campus). This year the estimate is 9,621. This drop is most attributable to the change in one particular demographic. In 2010, the ACD estimated there were 2,639 20 to 25 year olds in the West Village. Now it estimates 1,467. It’s unlikely there was a huge exodus of 20-somethings. For what it’s worth, the Census itself counted 2,316 20-25 year olds. Continue reading →

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July 19, 2012 · 10:00 am

Census Odds and Ends

On days when GM doesn’t have any particular article idea in mind, he likes to stroll back through the census numbers to see if there aren’t a few more nuggets of information worth digging up. And today is one of those days.

Language

Surprisingly, only 81% of Georgetowners speak only English at home. Of the 19% of Georgetowners who speak another language at home, only 6% speak Spanish. Also surprising, 36% of these non-exclusively English speakers are native born US citizens. GM knows one family that would fit into this category, where the father is American, the mother European, and the child bilingual.

Income

Georgetown families are not hurting, income wise. In east Georgetown, the median family income is $224,286 and the average family income is a whopping $348,784 (the reason these numbers are so different is that a few large incomes can skew an average but not a median). In west Georgetown, the median family income is $223,036 and the average $321,055.

Not all families are wealthy though. 21% of families in east Georgetown and 6% in west Georgetown make less than $75,000. Continue reading →

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September 4, 2009 · 9:00 am

The Great Georgetown Bugaboo: Cars and Parking

At Monday’s ANC meeting there was a near constant theme that weaves itself through just about every ANC2E meeting: cars and parking. It is the received wisdom that parking is a scarce commodity in Georgetown that needs to be defended against all threats of a cut in supply or an increase in demand.

For instance, on Monday night a resident came applying for permission to construct a basement exit to her house. The conversation soon turned to how many square feet the butler’s pantry was in the basement. What does that have to do with a basement exit you ask? A basement with a kitchen and an exit could be turned into a completely separate basement apartment. And in the minds of Commissioners, and many residents, another apartment means another car and another car means one fewer parking spot.

This is how the great Georgetown bugaboo, cars and parking, guides many of the decisions of our elected officials.

But are they basing their decisions on a fair picture of the neighborhood or are they letting their own flawed perceptions and the voices of a loud minority guide them?

GM dug into the numbers and found that the true picture of cars in Georgetown is complicated. The problem is felt by fewer than you’d think and the bulk of the problem may come from the choices of surprisingly few. Find out why after the jump.

Continue reading →

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