Kicker: It’ll help divide 435 House seats among states
The US Census Bureau announced April 26 that the 2020 Census shows the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2020, was 331,449,281.
The US resident population represents the total number of people living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The resident population increased by 22,703,743 or 7.4% from 308,745,538 in 2010.
“The American public deserves a big thank you for its overwhelming response to the 2020 Census,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said.
“In a first for the Census Bureau, we are releasing data quality metrics on the same day we’re making the resident population counts available to the public. We are confident that today’s 2020 Census results meet our high data quality standards,” said acting Census Bureau Director Ron Jarmin.
The new resident population statistics for the United States, each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are available on census.gov.
- The most populous state was California (39,538,223); the least populous was Wyoming (576,851).
- 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).
- Puerto Rico’s resident population was 3,285,874, down 11.8% from 3,725,789 in the 2010 Census.
In addition to these newly released statistics, Secretary Raimondo delivered to President Biden the population counts to be used for apportioning the seats in the US House of Representatives. In accordance with Title 2 of the US Code, a congressionally defined formula is applied to the apportionment population to distribute the 435 seats in the US House of Representatives among the states.
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Six states gained a seat(s) in the House of Representatives, including Texas (+2), Colorado (+1), Florida (+1), Montana (+1), North Carolina (+1), and Oregon (+1).
- Seven states lost a seat, including California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Upon receipt of the apportionment counts, the president will transmit them to the 117th Congress. The reapportioned Congress will be the 118th, which convenes in January 2023.
