Participant Guide: Who We Are Today


The Envision Participant Guide provides an in-depth exploration of the opportunities and challenges which may shape the future of Prince George’s County.

In today’s excerpt, we take a look at what we look like today.

What do we look like today?

Several factors, including school busing and a sewer moratorium, combined to slow the population explosion during the 1970s, which then began to grow again between 1980 and today.

While population growth from 1970 to 2000 was much less dramatic than before, the population has become more diverse, especially with increases in local residents from Southeast Asia, West Africa, and Central and South America. The county again became a majority African-American county in 1990 when the African-American population was recorded at just under 51 percent. As recently as 1970, whites made up 85 percent of the population in comparison to blacks, who made up 14 percent. There has also been significant growth in the population that is neither black nor white, from one percent of the population in 1960 to 20 percent in 2000.

The population also became more dispersed in ar­eas that had been primarily farmland to the east and south of the Beltway. Sixty-four percent of the popula­tion lived inside the Capital Beltway in 1970. In 2000, only 49 percent lived inside the Beltway. The popula­tion outside the Beltway grew 71 percent from about 240,000 to 410,000. During this period, of course, the dominance of agriculture continually decreased as more and more land was given over to development.

After more than 200 years as a growing agricultural community, and the dramatic changes of the past 100 years, what is Prince George’s like today? How does it compare to other parts of the region?

For much more background on our county, please download and review the Envision Participant Guide (note: This is a large 4.99MB PDF file), and look for many more Participant Guide excerpts here at the Envision blog.



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