US Census: Texas Gains Congress Seats, Calif. Loses First Time; Population Increases
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first numbers from the 2020 census are out and they show Republican-controlled Southern and Western states gaining congressional seats.
The once-a-decade head count shows where the population grew during the past 10 years and where it shrank. Fast-growing Texas got enough people to merit two new House seats. Florida and North Carolina picked up one each. In contrast, Michigan, New York and Ohio each lost a seat. So did California — losing a seat for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, the Census Bureau says the population of the United States is 331,449,281. The 7.4% increase over the last decade is the second slowest ever.
The Census Bureau is releasing the first data from its 2020 headcount.
The release marks the official beginning of the once-a-decade redistricting battles. The numbers released Monday, along with more detailed data expected later this year, will be used by state legislatures or independent commissions to redraw political maps to account for shifts in population.
Louisiana’s population grew enough over the last decade that it won’t lose a congressional seat, but that growth still fell well below the increases seen in many other states and across the nation. The latest U.S. census data released Monday showed Louisiana had more than 4.6 million people in the latest 2020 tally, about 124,000 more people than in 2010. The 2.7% growth rate was far short of the 7.4% population increase seen across the United States. But it was enough for Louisiana to keep six seats in the U.S. House. The state lost a congressional seat after the 2010 census because of anemic population growth at the time.
(Story written by MIKE SCHNEIDER and NICHOLAS RICCARDI/AP)