The District of Columbia, informally known as Washington, DC, is the capital of the United States. Although technically a Federal District rather than a state, the US Census Bureau treats it as the equivalent of a state for statistical purposes.
Washington, DC, is unique in that commuters from surrounding suburbs in Maryland and Virginia during the workweek raise the city's daytime population to more than one million. However, the actual residential population was estimated to be 715,891 as of 2023, which exceeds the populations of Wyoming and Vermont.
Washington DC has experienced significant growth of 18.97% from 2010 to 2023, which would rank as the 7th-highest improvement if Washington DC was a state. Perhaps humorously, although Washington DC has a much smaller area than any state, its population is closest to that of Alaska (pop. 740,339)—the nation's largest state in terms of area.
The difference in total area between Alaska and the District of Colombia is arguably best demonstrated by comparing their population densities. Alaska's population density of one (1) person/mi² is the lowest in the US. By comparison, the population density of Washington DC is 11,736 people/mi²—which is ten times higher than that of the most densely populated state (New Jersey at 1,283 people/mi²) and also higher than all but ten US cities.
Washington, DC, has a lower median age than any state other than Utah. It also has a higher percentage of black residents (46.53%) and a higher average per-capita income than any fully-fledged state.
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