It’s not your imagination — the populations of D.C., Maryland and Virginia have all grown over the past decade.
D.C.’s population grew by about 15%, Maryland’s population grew by about 7% and Virginia’s population grew by about 8%, 2020 Census results released Monday say.
Neither Maryland nor Virginia is set to gain or lose congressional seats.
The District of Columbia's population went up 14.6%, reaching nearly 690,000 people.
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Maryland has seen an increase of 403,672 people from 2010, the report said. Maryland's 2020 population is 6,177,224, compared with 5,773,552 in the 2010 census.
“We’ve had more births than deaths in Maryland, and we’ve had a portion of that international migration that the country has been experiencing happening here in Maryland,” said Rob McCord, the secretary of the Maryland Department of Planning, adding that the state was not expected to gain or lose congressional seats.
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Maryland has eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. It is now the nation's 18th most populous state, moving up a spot from 19th in 2010.
Maryland outgained some of its neighboring states in population. Pennsylvania saw a 2.4% increase. West Virginia saw a drop in population of 3.2%.
Some of the state's neighbors saw higher increases than Maryland. Virginia had a 7.9% increase, but it wasn't enough to obtain an additional congressional seat.
Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281, the Census Bureau said. That's a 7.4% increase, which was the second-slowest ever.
The census release marks the official beginning of the once-a-decade redistricting battles. The numbers released Monday, along with more detailed data expected later this year, will be used by state legislatures or independent commissions to redraw political maps to account for shifts in population.
Texas was the biggest winner — the second-most populous state added two congressional seats, while Florida and North Carolina gained one. Colorado, Montana and Oregon each also added residents and gained seats. States losing seats included Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
More detailed figures will be released later this year showing populations by race, Hispanic origin, gender and housing at geographic levels as small as neighborhoods. That redistricting data will be used for redrawing precise congressional and legislative districts, a process in Virginia that will be overseen by a newly created bipartisan commission.
The release of Monday's data came almost four months later than planned because of delays caused by the pandemic and anomalies discovered in the data as the numbers were being crunched.
