By Sherry Mazzocchi
While New York City’s population grew by 629,000 in the past decade, preliminary U.S. Census numbers reveal that the population of Washington Heights and Inwood got smaller, older, and whiter.
According to 2020 Census data tabulated by the city, Manhattan Community District 12 (comprised of several Northern Manhattan census tracts) lost nearly 10,000 residents. That represents a 5.16 percent decrease from 2010. By comparison, New York City’s overall population grew by 7.7 percent.
New York City remains the nation’s largest city, with more than twice the population of Los Angeles, the country’s next largest city.
Out of all New York City’s 197 resident neighborhoods, Inwood (down five percent) and Washington Heights South (down seven percent) were the only areas with a population decrease of five percent or more.
“A large factor in the population decline in Northern Manhattan is a lack of enough new housing, which the recently adopted Inwood Neighborhoods Plan and its promised 1,600 affordable homes, can help reverse,” said Melissa Grace, a spokesperson for the Department of City Planning (DCP).
Read more: What Census numbers reveal about uptown | Manhattan Times
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