Explained: D.C. Gains '1,000 New Residents Every Month'

David Alpert and Gerry Widdicombe provide an explainer post, of sorts, on the oft-cited statistic of Washington, D.C. gaining 1,000 new residents every month. According to the article, although it's true to say that D.C.'s population is increasing by 1,000 people every month, "it's not really true to say that 1,000 people are moving into DC each month."

Alpert and Widdicombe proceed to breakdown the population data for Washington, D.C., considering births, deaths, domestic migration, and international migration. The authors of the post are careful to explain, with graphs and charts to illustrate their points, the difficulties of collecting good data on population changes in Washington, D.C. (or any other locale in the country for that matter). Still, "the overall net population change numbers are more solid, and in the end, some more people are born than die, and more people come into DC from around the nation and the world than leave." Moreover, understanding and accepting that trend will be important as the District plans to accommodate that growing population.