Downtown Raleigh is one of the fastest-growing parts of the city. Who is moving there?

The oldest part of Raleigh has been one of the fastest growing in recent years, as new apartment and condo buildings have turned the city’s downtown business district into a neighborhood.

More than 7,000 people were living downtown and in the adjoining Glenwood South district during the comprehensive census in April 2020. That’s an increase of 82.2% over the previous decade, a time when the city’s population grew 15.8%.

Now, new numbers from the census provide more information about who those downtown dwellers are and how they differ from residents in the rest of the city. The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday released data on the demographics of households across the country, providing details about specific neighborhoods and enabling comparisons that show how they’ve changed over time and how they differ from other places.

Downtown Raleigh residents in 2020 were far more likely to be young adults, living alone or with unrelated roommates, than residents in Raleigh as a whole. They have far fewer children and are much more likely to rent than own their homes. Downtown residents are also more likely to be white and male compared to the city overall.

The new data is limited. It doesn’t include information about how educated residents are, how much money they make or how much they spend on housing. The U.S. Census Bureau gathers that information through annual surveys that are less precise than the decennial census and less reliable when looking at particular neighborhoods.

But the 2020 census provides some information about how Raleigh’s growing downtown population is changing. Among the findings:

▪ Nearly 83% of downtown residents rented their homes in 2020. That compares to a rental rate of 51.8% citywide and was up from 68.3% in 2010.

▪ Nearly 81% of residents lived in nonfamily households, which means they lived alone or with someone unrelated. That compares to 45.6% of residents citywide.

▪ Nearly 70% of residents identified as white and not-Hispanic, up from 55.7% in 2010. The citywide number in 2020 was 51.6%.

▪ People who identified as Hispanic or Latino accounted for 6% of downtown residents, compared to 12.9% citywide.

▪ Only 4.8% of downtown residents were under 20 years old in 2020, compared to 24% in Raleigh as a whole.

▪ Young adults made up a growing share of the downtown population. In 2020, 63% of downtown residents were in their 20s and 30s, compared to 44.9% in 2010. The citywide figure in 2020 was 35.5%.

▪ And male downtown residents outnumbered females. Males accounted for 57.5% of people living downtown, compared with 48.1% in the city overall.