WASHINGTON – The population of the U.S. grew 9.7 percent to 308.7 million since 2000, with Southern and Western states outpacing other regions in population growth, new census data shows.
The gains in the South and West will come at the expense of the Northeast and Midwest, where states will shed seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. That will take electoral votes away from states President Barack Obama carried in 2008, a potential boost for Republicans in the 2012 presidential race.
States will use the population shifts to reallocate many of the 435 U.S. House seats. Republicans will have an edge in directing the redistricting process because they gained ground in last month’s elections.
“It will set off an intense game of musical chairs,” said Andrew Smith, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. “It’s life or death for these guys.”
Rhode Island increased its population by 0.4 percent in 2010 from 2000, or 4,248 residents. The state will keep its two seats in the U.S. House.
The growth in the overall U.S. population, driven by an increase in Hispanic residents, was the slowest for any decade since the 1930s, as the worst recession since the Great Depression stunted immigration.
Texas was the biggest winner, gaining four seats, while Ohio and New York were the biggest losers, dropping two seats each.
Besides Texas, other winners are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington. Other losers are Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
A new America
The state population counts mark the start of a new look at the United States from the 2010 census. The data will be used by the government to distribute more than $400 billion in annual federal funding, by businesses to identify markets, and by social scientists to examine the changing demographics.
Tuesday’s release included only population counts. More detailed data on race, ethnicity, housing and other variables will gradually be provided, beginning in February, for all levels of geography, from neighborhoods to states.
Still, it’s the overall population shifts that will have the most immediate political impact.
Congressional seats are reapportioned every decade after completion of the census, with each district to have roughly the same number of people. After the 2000 Census, each lawmaker was supposed to represent about 647,000 people. That number will now grow to 710,767, the census bureau said.
Electoral Vote
The reapportionment alters electoral vote calculations because a state’s Electoral College vote is the sum of its House seats, plus its two Senate seats.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, downplayed the importance of the shift, telling reporters on Monday that the movements wouldn’t represent a dramatic change in presidential politics.
“I don’t think shifting some seats from one area of the country to another necessarily marks a concern that you can’t make a politically potent argument in those new places,” he said.
Much of the population gain for states like Texas, the second-most-populous state, is the result of Hispanic growth. Hispanics account for about 36 percent of the state’s population, the latest census estimates show.
Backing Obama
In 2008, Hispanics voted for Obama by a ratio of more than two-to-one, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research center based in Washington. The role Hispanic population growth will play in the nation’s politics won’t be fully known until the new districts are drawn.
This redistricting marks the first time in California’s history that it didn’t win an additional U.S. House seat. The nation’s largest state has 53 seats.
