Population, Jobs and Commutes in the Washington Region, Part Five

In Part Two, we saw that Fairfax County was adding population and employment, and seeing increases in real wages, at much higher rates than MoCo or Prince George’s County. And in Parts Three and Four, we saw how the commuting patterns to jobs inside each of the Big Four had changed since 1970. Here’s a summary of those changes.


D.C. was a larger jobs magnet in 2000 than it was in 1970, drawing in 271,803 net commuters – a 52% increase – from Fairfax, MoCo and Prince George’s. While it is true that there has been a slight rise in the number of reverse commuters, or D.C. residents working in the suburbs, that has been utterly swamped by suburban growth. The biggest source of commuters for the Big Four is Prince George’s County, which now has about as many cross-border commuters to the rest of the Big Four as Fairfax and MoCo combined. Following are two maps that show net flows among the Big Four in both 1970 and 2000.



Finally, consider the percentage of employed residents in each jurisdiction who worked inside that jurisdiction in both years.

Percentage of D.C. employed residents who work in D.C., 1970: 67%
Percentage of D.C. employed residents who work in D.C., 2000: 73%

Percentage of Fairfax employed residents who work in Fairfax, 1970: 40%
Percentage of Fairfax employed residents who work in Fairfax, 2000: 58%

Percentage of MoCo employed residents who work in MoCo, 1970: 51%
Percentage of MoCo employed residents who work in MoCo, 2000: 59%

Percentage of P.G. employed residents who work in P.G., 1970: 40%
Percentage of P.G. employed residents who work in P.G., 2000: 39%

Prince George’s County’s role in this system is obvious. Because it has not had robust employment or real wage growth, its residents are forced to work elsewhere. That fact combined with the jobs explosion in Northern Virginia is impacting our transportation network, creating a system of congested, one-way flows.

We’ll see what that means for commuting times in Part Six.