Millennials. Young people. The Kids Today. However you want to describe that subset of the population, there's no denying that they're slowly but surely reorganizing the makeup of the nation and it's cities. According to University of Waterloo geographer and urban planner Markus Moos, you can call it "youthification," the "influx of young adults into higher density" neighborhoods and cities. Moos' online project Generationed City takes those born between 1980 and 2000 and figures out exactly where they're choosing to live.
As you can see from the map above (click to enlarge), those residents 25 to 34 years old are clustering in Downtown, Belltown, Capitol Hill and all of the neighborhoods running along Lake Union and the Ship Canal (Eastlake, Westlake, Wallingford, Fremont, Ballard). There's also a significant number of young folks gobbling up apartments around Bellevue and Redmond, where they're likely gobbling up tech jobs as well.
Need to get away from the young folk? Head to the shores of Puget Sound or Lake Washington. Younger populations have yet to break through into the pricier parts of town that hug the shores. Not that they want to, given their interest in proximity to work, nightlife and ease of transportation.
No big surprise to see Seattle among the top 10 cities with the greatest share of young adults. Perhaps that's because the study's "preliminary results suggest that the metropolitan areas with the highest shares of young adults are also those where young adults are most centralized, and where the Baby Boomers are more suburbanized." We know Seattle is among the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. and that influx is being led by the folks in this demographic.
· Where Do Young Adults Live? [GC]
· Population Watch [CS]
· By 2030, Seattle Will Be Much More Diverse & Much Older [CS]
· Is Your Neighborhood Changing? It Might Be Youthification, Not Gentrification [CL]