People of Washington, D.C.

Washington has always been an ethnically diverse city. In 1800 one community consisted of mostly affluent descendants of Europeans; they held various religious beliefs and political views but generally shared an optimism in the potential for self-government and a desire to participate in it. Another early community was made up of labourers—some educated or skilled, others uneducated or unskilled—who physically built the country’s capital; most of these labourers were free Blacks, slaves, and immigrants. Because Washington boasted no major industries, these early immigrants were mainly skilled workers and entrepreneurs from Scotland and Ireland. By the mid- to late 19th century, additional immigrants from Germany, Italy, eastern Europe, Greece, and China had established ethnic enclaves within Washington.

Prior to the American Civil War, Washington’s Black population was part free and part slave. In 1800 about one-third of the population was Black, about one-fifth of which was free. By 1860 more than four-fifths of the Black population was free. The city’s African American population more than doubled between the start of the Civil War (1861) and the end of Reconstruction (1877), when tens of thousands of freed Blacks poured into the city. By 1900 Washington had the largest African American urban population in the United States, and a number of prominent Black leaders and educators lived there. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, large numbers of rural poor African Americans moved from the South to settle in Washington. By the 1970s nearly three-fourths of the capital city’s population was African American. Although this proportion shrank over the next few decades, African Americans continued to constitute the majority of D.C.’s population into the early 2000s.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Washington remains a somewhat racially and economically divided city. The majority of European Americans live in Northwest D.C., while Southeast D.C. chiefly consists of a poor African American population. More than half of the city’s inhabitants are African American, about two-fifths are of European descent, and the remainder are mainly of Hispanic or Asian origin. In contrast to the city’s demographic breakdown, in the surrounding metropolitan area European Americans constitute nearly two-thirds of the population, African Americans make up less than one-fourth, and the remainder of the population is of multiethnic heritage. The immigrant population in the city and suburbs includes some of the country’s largest Ethiopian, Central American, and Korean communities.

Throughout the 20th century, population growth in Washington was cyclical, increasing during wartime and economic downturns as people arrived in search of jobs or assistance from the federal government. During the last decades of the 20th century, the size of the District’s population stabilized while the suburbs experienced unprecedented growth. At the beginning of the 21st century, the city’s population was young, with the average age in the mid-30s. Moreover, nearly one-fifth of the city’s residents were between ages 25 and 34.

Economy

As a result of Washington’s abundance of federal civil service jobs and its status as a major tourist destination, the city’s economy is overwhelmingly dominated by the service sector. Research and development work is another key component of the local economy. Most businesses are linked in some way to the federal government. Thousands of area residents work as lobbyists, seeking favourable legislation for the interests they represent. (Although the term lobbyist used in this context probably dates from the early 19th century, it is a popularly held notion that it was coined by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who applied the name to the favour seekers who sought him out in the lobby of the Willard Hotel [now the Willard InterContinental Washington], where he was known to relax after a long day.)

Finance and other services

Washington has been a banking centre since the arrival of Congress and the establishment of a branch office of the Bank of the United States, which survived until 1836. The city’s “financial district” is defined as the area immediately around the Treasury Department, where many private banks are still located. The area has been designated a historic district to preserve the Victorian and Second Empire–style banking houses that were erected there at the turn of the 20th century. Several major government banking institutions are headquartered in Washington, including the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, under the Department of Treasury, has its main printing facility in Washington. Major international financial institutions in Washington include the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank.