section_path: Demographics
section_name: Demographics
paragraph_text: Demographics
  
  The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the district's population was 705,749 as of July 2019, up more than 100,000 people since the 2010 United States Census. When measured decade-over-decade, this shows growth since 2000, following a half-century of population decline. Washington was the 24th-most populous place in the United States as of 2010. According to data from 2010, commuters from the suburbs boost the district's daytime population past one million. If the district were a state, it would rank 49th in population, ahead of Vermont and Wyoming.
  
  The Washington metropolitan area, which includes the district and surrounding suburbs, is the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with an estimated six million residents as of 2016. When the Washington area is included with Baltimore and its suburbs, it forms the vast Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. With a population exceeding 9.8 million residents in 2020, it is the third-largest combined statistical area in the country.
  
  According to Department of Housing and Development 's Annual Homeless Assessment Report in 2022, there were an estimated 4,410 homeless people in Washington, D.C. The city passed a law in 2013 that requires shelter to be provided to everyone in need when the temperature drops below freezing. Since D.C. does not have enough shelter units available, every winter it books hotel rooms in the suburbs with an average cost of around $100 for a night. According to the D.C. Department of Human Services, during the winter of 2012 the city spent $2,544,454 on putting homeless families in hotels, and budgeted $3.2 million on hotel beds in 2013.
  
  According to 2020 Census Bureau data, the population of Washington, D.C., was 41.4% Black or African American, 39.6% White (37.9% non-Hispanic White), 4.9% Asian, 0.5% American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and 5.4% Some Other Race. Individuals from two or more races made up 8.1% of the population. Hispanics of any race made up 11.3% of the district's population.
  
  Washington, D.C. has had a relatively large African American population since the city's foundation. African American residents composed about 30% of the district's total population between 1800 and 1940. The black population reached a peak of 70% by 1970 and has since declined as African Americans moved to the surrounding suburbs. Partly as a result of gentrification, there was a 31.4% increase in the non-Hispanic white population and an 11.5% decrease in the black population between 2000 and 2010. According to a study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the city has experienced more gentrification than any other U.S. city, with 40% of neighborhoods gentrified.
  
  As of 2010, about 17% of Washington, D.C. residents were age 18 or younger, which is lower than the U.S. average of 24%. However, at 34 years old, the district had the lowest median age compared to the 50 states as of 2010. As of 2010, there were an estimated 81,734 immigrants living in Washington, D.C. Major sources of immigration include El Salvador, Ethiopia, Mexico, Guatemala, and China, with a concentration of Salvadorans in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
  
  As of 2010, there were 4,822 same-sex couples in the city, about 2% of total households, according to Williams Institute. Legislation authorizing same-sex marriage passed in 2009, and the district began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in March 2010.
  
  As of 2007, about one-third of Washington, D.C., residents were functionally illiterate, greater than the national rate of about one-fifth. The city's relatively high illiteracy rate is attributed partly to immigrants who are not proficient in English. As of 2011, 85% of D.C. residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language. Half of residents had at least a four-year college degree in 2006. In 2017, the median household income in D.C. was $77,649; also in 2017, D.C. residents had a personal income per capita of $50,832 (higher than any of the 50 states). However, 19% of residents were below the poverty level in 2005, higher than any state except Mississippi. In 2019, the poverty rate stood at 14.7%.
  
  As of 2010, more than 90% of Washington, D.C., residents had health insurance coverage, the second-highest rate in the nation. This is due in part to city programs that help provide insurance to low-income individuals who do not qualify for other types of coverage. A 2009 report found that at least three percent of Washington, D.C., residents have HIV or AIDS, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) characterizes as a "generalized and severe" epidemic.
  
  As of 2020, according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, 56% of the city's residents were adherents of a religious body. The largest tradition represented was Evangelical Protestantism (15% of total population), followed by Catholicism (12%), Black Protestantism (10%), Mainline Protestantism (10%), Judaism (3%), Orthodox Christianity (2%), Buddhism (1%), and Islam (1%), with several other groups numbering less than 1%. Mainline Protestants were the largest group in 2010, Catholics in 2000, and Black Protestants in 1990. The city is populated with many religious buildings, including Washington National Cathedral, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, which comprises the largest Catholic church building in the United States, and the Islamic Center of Washington, which was the largest mosque in the Western Hemisphere when it opened in 1957. St. John's Episcopal Church, located off Lafayette Square, has held services for every U.S. president since James Madison. The Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, built in 1908, is a synagogue located in the Chinatown section of the city. The Washington D.C. Temple is a Latter-day Saint temple located just outside the city in Kensington, Maryland. Viewable from the Capital Beltway, the temple is the tallest temple of the church in existence, and is the third-largest by square footage.