How Dense is DC? Visualizing Washington DC’s Population Density



Where these debates often breakdown is when it comes to the relative nature of population density: How dense is ‘dense’? Is Washington, DC dense? We should all be able to agree that New York is dense, right? Well, not compared to Paris, let alone Manila.

In order to put Washington’s density in perspective, we put together a series of visualizations showing how large D.C. would be if it were as dense as other cities.

If D.C.’s population lived as close together as New York’s does, how much space would they take up? Compared to cities like Mumbai, Washington is a sprawl, while compared with Jacksonville and Anchorage, Washington is practically Manhattan.


