Also, a quarter lives on just 7% of it. I made these maps to illustrate that.

Maps produced by the author. Data comes from 2014 ACS five-year estimates.

According to survey data from the Census Bureau, 50% of DC’s population lives on just under 19% of its total area (bodies of water are included). In absolute terms, that’s almost 315,000 people living on roughly 8,000 acres.

Zooming in even more, we see that 25% of people living in DC inhabit just 7% of its land. These residents are mostly clustered around neighborhoods like Logan Circle and Columbia Heights, where housing is dense and transit is plentiful.

For comparison, 50% of New York City’s population lives on only 11% of its land area:

Do you notice anything interesting in these maps?