Numbers Show Stable, Smaller, Richer Reston, Karen Goff, Reston Patch, December 15, 2010

American Community Survey provides a look at who lives here.

The Reston of 2010 is a little smaller, a little older  and a little wealthier than it was in 2000.

The US Census Bureau this week released its American Community Survey information. This is not the official 10-year census, but rather a snapshot of individual communities in the period of 2005-2009. . . .

For all the details, click here.  

I, for one, am a little skeptical of data--even Census Bureau data--that shows Reston's population shrank over the last decade.  The same data set shows that nearly 2,400 new housing units were built in Reston in the decade, and its hard to imagine this 10% increase in homes still resulted in a 5% population decline.  I doubt household size shrunk that much, even if we're a little older (empty nesters) and the dwelling units built this decade were largely high-rise, high-density condos & rentals (with presumably smaller households).  

I'll wait for the results of the full 2010 census rather than this five-year survey estimate to be persuaded that Reston has fewer people than a decade ago.  Still, an interesting set of data to mull over.