Here's a roundup of key questions raised this week about redistricting.
Why is Illinois talking about redistricting now?
The U.S. Census Bureau released 2020 data on Monday telling each state how many of the 435 seats in Congress they will have.
Every state gets at least one House seat. The rest are apportioned based on a state's population. States that lose population, according to the Census, are at risk of losing seats, those that gain residents can add seats. The U.S. Supreme Court requires that all Congressional Districts be roughly equal in population.
Illinois will lose one of its 17 congressional districts and saw a decrease of more than 18,000 people since 2010, according to the bureau's calculations. That means when a new Congress is seated in 2023, the state will have one fewer representative in the House.