Census data show Virginia’s population up by 7.9%
Free Press wire reports | 4/29/2021, 6 p.m.
Virginia’s population grew over the past decade, but not enough to gain an additional seat in Congress, according to new figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Monday.
Monday’s data release was the first to emerge from the nation’s once-a-decade head count. It showed that from 2010 to 2020, Virginia’s resident population grew by 7.9 percent to 8,631,393. That growth will not change Virginia’s allotted number of congressional seats, 11.
Altogether, the U.S. population rose to 331,449,281, the Census Bureau said, a 7.4 percent increase that was the second-slowest ever.
Because the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives is set at 435, apportionment is a zero-sum game with one state’s gain resulting in another state’s loss.
Texas was the biggest winner, with the second most populous state to gain two congressional seats, while North Carolina and Florida each gained one new House seat. Colorado, Montana and Oregon all
also added residents and gained seats. States losing seats included California, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois.
More detailed figures will be released later this year showing populations by race, Hispanic origin, gender and housing at geographic levels as small as neighborhoods.
That redistricting data will be used for redraw- ing precise congressional and legislative districts, a process in Virginia that will be overseen by a newly created bipartisan commission.
