Washington-Baltimore is among the most attractive regions for the nation's most sought-after demographic group -- young, single people with college degrees, the Census Bureau reported yesterday.

The region gained more than 25,000 people in this group from other parts of the country in the late 1990s, census numbers show. That increase ranked fourth among the nation's 20 largest metropolitan areas, after San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Better offers could carry many of them off to other places ...