Apr 29, 2021
The 2020 decennial census finds the population in the US grew by the second lowest amount since the count began in 1790. The lowest point was the Great Depression of the 1930’s when the population grew by 7.3%.Growth from 2010 through the 2020 count was 7.4%.It had been 9.7% in the previous census.
The total population in the US is 331.5 million. Texas will pick up two new congressional districts based on Census reapportionment and Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, Colorado and Montana each gaining one. For the first time since it entered the Union, California has lost a seat.
A decade long drop in immigration is a driving reason for the decline, impacted by lingering effects of the 2008 economic downturn and President Trump’s policies in the last four years. “During the Trump administration, there was pretty strong effort to manage immigration more so than I think happened in previous administrations,” says Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter.
2020 census results: Fear, lack of funding hurt Sun Belt latimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from latimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Texas came up about 190,000 people short of earning a 39th seat in the U.S. House, according to state population growth figures released Monday. While Texas continued to add more people than any other state, the final tally coming in 0.6% lower than projections was enough to keep the Lone Star State from a 41st Electoral College vote.
Texas still gained more congressional seats than any other state in a reapportionment that shifted seats from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West.
Michael Li, redistricting counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, pointed at some Republican Party policies for playing a role in Texas coming up short of the projected population tally. The lack of investment in census outreach coupled with the Trump administration s attempt to place a citizenship question on the census might have led to an undercount in Texas, Li said.