Designed in 1791 by
Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the city is split into
quadrants that meet at the Capitol Building, with 131
neighborhoods overall. As of the
2020 census, the city's population was 689,545. During the workweek, commuters from the city's Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's daytime population beyond onemillion. The
Washington metropolitan area, which includes parts of Maryland, Virginia, and
West Virginia, is the country's
seventh-largest metropolitan area, with a 2023 population of 6.3million residents.
A locally elected mayor and
13-member council have governed the district since 1973, though Congress retains the power to overturn local laws. Washington, D.C., residents do not have voting representation in Congress, but elect a single
non-voting congressional delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives. The city's voters choose three
presidential electors in accordance with the
Twenty-third Amendment, passed in 1961.