In certain circles, Washington, D.C., often feels like a place where no one's from, a city of migrants and job-seekers defined as much by its out-of-town-ness as its homegrown character.
But Washington is also the kind of place where many people spend some time and then move on (or can't find work and get priced out). Factor in all the people leaving D.C., and you get this net picture, with counties that are net drivers of population to D.C. in orange and those that are net takers in blue:
These maps, drawing from an updated set of national migration data released this week, and created with the Census Flows Mapper interactive, offer a unique lens on the relationship the District — or any county — has to the rest of the country, and, by extension, the job markets and amenities that lure us long distance, pulling and pushing us across the country. (The numbers on each map reflect one-year averages from the five-year ACS window, counting people, not households).
Some cities, like Los Angeles, are even greater national migration hubs (in both directions):
Others are more distinctly regional epicenters, like Atlanta:
Or Kansas City, Mo.:
Some places are largely unconnected to each other, like San Francisco and the Great Plains:
Or Milwaukee and West Texas:
While others, like Detroit, bear a lopsided relationship to the rest of the country, giving away many more residents than they attract:
You can look up your own county here (if, that is, you are from somewhere other than the District). The updated data also includes a breakdown of migration patterns by employment status, and we'll aim to play with those next.