Region a Rising Draw for Immigrants

Trends in the D.C. Area Prompt Questions Over Competition for Services

The Washington region, long established as a magnet for Hispanics and Asians, is drawing those groups faster this decade than in the past and in larger numbers than many large metropolitan areas, according to a report released yesterday.

The growth has made the Washington area one of a dozen large regions with a race and age gap: Most children younger than 15 are minorities, and most adults are white.

The region's black population, which for decades ranked third in the nation behind New York's and Chicago's, is growing but has fallen to fourth behind greater Atlanta's.

The analysis by Brookings Institution demographer William H. Frey underscores Washington's role as an increasingly important center for immigrants, many drawn by its healthy economy to fill jobs or open businesses. Those changing demographics have brought new social dynamics, including tensions over issues such as day laborers' congregating in suburban parking lots. And the trends raise questions about potential competition for public resources between older whites and younger minorities.

In mainly white Fairfax and Montgomery counties, which operate the region's two biggest school systems, minority students recently became half or more of public school enrollment. At the same time, communities are contending with growing demands for transportation, home-delivered meals or other services for an increasing number of elderly, mostly white residents.

"It is new for everybody, this generation gap," Frey said. "It isn't the old racial segregation issues. Local governments are going to have to deal with the needs of a growing senior population and a growing child population."

Nationally, Frey's analysis of census racial and ethnic population estimates for 2000 through 2004 found Hispanics and Asians moving to a wider array of regions, with both groups sometimes bypassing traditional population centers in the West and South. Nashville and Indianapolis are among the hot new destinations for Hispanic residents, for example, and Orlando and Phoenix are among those with sharply rising Asian populations. The trend of black people moving to Southern states has sped up this decade, according to Frey's study.

In his analysis of previously released census data, Frey found that the white population of greater Washington, a region stretching from Southern Maryland to eastern West Virginia, is slightly increasing. That contrasts with diverse areas such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, which are losing white residents.

Greater Washington's gain of 114,000 Hispanic residents this decade ranked ninth among the nation's 88 largest metropolitan areas, up from 14th in the 1990s. Even so, many advocates say census numbers understate the size of the population.

Many new Hispanic residents, such as Hernan Rojas, are immigrants who came to the area because of its booming economy.

Rojas, 45, a real estate and investment adviser, said he settled in Loudoun County with his wife, Lennis, and their two sons because it is one of the nation's fastest-growing counties and has a well-regarded school system. A lawyer in Venezuela, he wanted to live near a large Hispanic population of potential clients. Many are Central Americans with modest jobs in contracting or restaurants.

"It is a very prosperous market," Rojas said. "The people from Central America work a lot, usually two and three jobs. . . . They have children who have the American dream, American customs -- they live like Americans. The next generation of Hispanics, the next 10 or 15 years, all of them will be professionals."