Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Census Data Shows Continued Shift Of Power To South And West

The Hotline blog comments on the latest census data, which shows states in the South and the West are likely to pick up more seats in Congress after the next decennial census at the expense of states in the Northeast and Midwest. Big winners at this point appear to be Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Texas and Utah. Big losers figure to be Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Texas could gain as many as four new seats, and Florida will likely pick up two seats--equalling the number of seats New York is expected to have, 27, after it loses another two seats.

Indiana will probably be on the bubble in determining whether it loses another seat from its current 9-member congressional delegation. Indiana added 47,501 during the most recent period, and it had a net migration of people into the state of 15,430. That's better than Illinois, which added 66,543 but had a negative, net migration of 7,200. Indiana's growth rate ranked 29th compared to Illinois' 35th-place ranking. Indiana's population stood at 6,313,520 as of July 1, 2006.

Arizona is the fastest-growing state in the nation, followed by Nevada, Idaho, Georgia and Texas, in that order. While California is still growing and remains the largest state, the Hotline predicts California's congressional delegation may remain the same after the next census for the first time in many decades after adding large numbers to its current 53-member delegation. California experienced a negative, net migration of over 21,000 during the most recent period.

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