Long-time residents and the owners of all those hip new restaurants have observed that there’s a lot more of the young people running around Baltimore neighborhoods like Federal Hill, Canton and Hampden in the new millennium. Today, City Observer released some numbers that prove the chatter is true: The city’s growth among young people was in the top 5 nationwide, while the metro area was in the top 10.
The report, titled “Young and Restless,” uses Census data to chart the flow of young people (ages 25-34) to cities over the last 15 years. As a group, Baltimore young professionals are growing just as fast as their counterparts in many other big city.
Here’s what we learned:
- More than 12,000 young college grads moved to Baltimore’s neighborhoods within three miles of downtown from 2000-2010. That’s an increase of 92 percent. Only four other cities had a faster growth rate.
- In 2012, about 160,000 young college grads lived in Baltimore.
- From 2000-2012, the Baltimore metro area gained about 38,000 young college graduates. That’s an increase of 32 percent — the eighth largest in the country.
- In 2000, 4.8 percent of Baltimore residents were 25-34, and had a college degree. In 2012, nearly 6 percent of city residents fit that description.
Even though they may drunkenly kick over more than a few flower pots, the report views these young college grads as key to a city’s growth. Of all educated age-groups with the potential to help fill spots in a growing workforce, the younger set is the most likely to move.
“Well-educated people of every age move, but young people are the most likely to move,” the report states. “As a result, they are the part of the educated workforce that is effectively ‘in play.’”
