Initial Census Results Have Been Released, How Did New York Do?

The US Census Bureau completed its 23rd Decennial Census this past fall and the Commerce Department, the federal agency that manages the US Census Bureau, has just released some initial apportionment data from the 2020 count for the country.

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The census is an important task that the Federal Government does every 10 years to count the entire population of the country. It's important for states and local communities because the number of people who live in a community impact how federal and state programs are allocated.

We are proud to release these first results from the 2020 Census today. These results reflect the tireless commitment from the entire Census Bureau team to produce the highest-quality statistics that will continue to shape the future of our country, and 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.
-Ron Jarmin, Acting Director of the US Census Bureau

Given these things, I know I have been eagerly awaiting these initial results. So, what do we know so far?

Countrywide:

• The total resident population of the United States, as of April 1, 2020, was 331,449,281 people,
  • This is an increase of approximately 7.4% when compared to 2010 (2010 Population 308,745,538)
• California remains the most populous state with 39,538,223 residents,
• Wyoming is the least populous state with 576,851 residents,
• Texas added the most residents with almost 4 million moving to the state, while Puerto Rico lost the most residents with a net decrease of more than 400,000 leaving the territory.

In New York:

• The total resident population increased to 20,201,249, an increase of almost 800,000 people when compared to 2010.

Even though New York added almost 800,000 new residents, we're going to lose 1 seat in Congress because the population growth or loss in other states also helps determine apportionment. Apportionment is the process that the federal government takes to split the 435 seats in Congress to the different states. This is based on a formula that Congress mandated to figure out how many representatives each state gets.

Needless to say, it is disappointing to hear that our great state will lose representation in Congress. New York lost 2 seats in the 2010 Census. It's still too soon to know what congressional district will be impacted by this, that data won't be available until later this year when more details about the census count are released.

For more information about the 2020 Census results, you can check the US Census Bureau website here.