The U.S. Census Bureau announced on Monday, April 26 that 331,449,281 people lived in the United States as of April 1, 2020. This is the first set of numbers the Census Bureau has released from the 2020 decennial census.
Between 2010-2020, the resident population increased by 22,703,743, or 7.4%, which is the slowest growth in recent censuses.
The states that saw the greatest change were Utah and Texas. The state that gained the most numerically since the 2010 Census was Texas (up 3,999,944 to 29,145,505). The fastest-growing state since the 2010 Census was Utah (up 18.4% to 3,271,616).
With the release of these statistics, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo sent the apportionment count to President Biden to be used for the count in the House of Representatives. The apportionment count includes everyone living in the U.S., plus overseas civilian and military personnel and their dependents living with them.
The apportionment numbers will mean that seven seats in the House of Representatives will be shifting. Texas will gain two seats. Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon will all gain a single seat in the House of Representatives. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia will all lose one seat.
In a call announcing the results, Census Bureau staff said 89 people was New York’s margin for losing a seat in the House of Representatives.
The next step is that President Biden will take the count and transmit them to the 117th Congress, the current Congress. The reapportionment will occur for the 118th Congress, which starts in January 2023.
Local level data, including local area counts that states need to redraw legislative boundaries, will be released by August 16. The data with toolkits for ease of use will be available September 30.
The National League of Cities has committed to helping cities understand and navigate the challenges of the 2020 Census. The Federal Advocacy team worked with Congress to support legislation that protected the Census Bureau from artificially rushed timelines that could compromise the count. NLC has also been providing technical assistance for municipalities across the United States to support their work in ensuring a fair and accurate Census count throughout 2019 and 2020. In total, the Local Democracy Initiative’s Cities Count program has provided $2 million to cities in over 200 grants between $1,000 and $50,000 in the last year.
This year, the Local Democracy Initiative is working closely with 30 cities who are recipients of the “Census and Local Democracy Grant”, which supports activities connected to civic education and civic health. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, several grantees have adjusted their grantee activities to utilize and build civic education systems to better educate the public on COVID-19 and to address vaccine hesitancy. NLC’s Local Democracy Initiative and Census program Cities Count continues to support the relationships that municipalities developed with CBOs and leaders from historically undercounted populations, like Black, Latinx/Hispanic, Indigenous and AAPI communities to address distrust and civic disengagement.
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