My favorite graphic so far from the Seattle Times Census 2010 coverage is colored tract map at left. Seattle had a respectable 8% growth, and this clearly shows that the City of Seattle’s growth over the past decade has been overwhelmingly in the urban centers and villages. I’ll be watching with interest if any other interesting nationwide trends come out from the census data. Chicago, for example, lost population overall, but gained inside the loop; meanwhile Dallas proper didn’t grow at all. Regionally of course there was a lot of greenfield growth.
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Why do you say there was a lot of greenfield growth?
Has anyone done an analysis on density growth, regionally or nationally? I think we all suspect an inverse bell curve (greater % growth in high-density urban centers and low-density greenfield) but would like to see real numbers.
Hans, I would say greenfield growth occurred because we are undergoing a societal shift, but reality has not yet caught up (or at least for 2000-2008 it had not). Some specific examples, laws such as federal tax breaks for home ownership, real estate financing preference for low dollars per square foot, and continued access to cheap fuel.
I’m not questioning why this growth would occur, but wondering where to find data about it.
Oh, I see. I have not seen any analysis on density growth, though the Census 2010 data is just beginning to be released.
I found the same trend of growth in urban villages when I analyzed population density in Seattle census tracts. I posted tables of population growth and density for each Seattle neighborhood on Build the City. I am working on GIS maps but haven’t posted them yet.
During the 2000s Belltown exceeded Capitol Hill as the City’s densest neighborhood, although the densest census tract is still in Capitol Hill. The biggest change was in the Denny Triangle/SLU area – it was a population dead zone in previous censuses, but now has a continuous population density greater than 10,000 ppl/mi2.
Nice work chad! I look forward to the colorful maps.
Joshua – I’ve finally got shaded population density maps up at http://www.BuildtheCity.Wordpress.com. I was able to go down to the census block group level, so they have more granularity than the tables I posted earlier.