WASHINGTON – D.C. is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, according to new census data.

The data show the District gained more than 16,000 residents in the 15 months after April 2010, growth of 2.7 percent.

That’s more than half as many new residents as the city gained the entire decade of the 2000s, The Washington Post reports.

Other growth hot spots were Leesburg, Gaithersburg and Rockville.

Overall, the data show most big cities are growing faster than the suburbs for the first time in decades.

William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, cautions that for big cities other than the District things might change when suburban housing market picks up again.

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