Big 2010 Census numbers are in along with the losers and winners
Who wins and who loses?
I say Losers and Winners because with every census comes the reapportionment of seats for the House of Representatives. Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts are all losing a seat in the House. New York and Ohio are worse off, they each lose two; what is interesting is of all those states, only Michigan lost population (and Missouri had a 7% increase and still got snookered, more on that later). Meanwhile Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, Arizona, Washington and Nevada all will gain one. Florida comes out of this even better with two new seats, but Texas is the big winner with four, count 'em four new representative seats. Texas is really becoming California’s counterweight, the latter for the first time not gaining a single seat.
In the future (starting with 2012) this latest shift will likely help Republicans and hurt Democrats. Five of the eight states that are ganging seats went for McCain in 2008 and seven of the eight are generally considered "Red States" (the exception being Washington). Of the ten states losing representatives, eight went for Obama in 2008.
Overall Growth
What is also interesting is that the decade of 2000-2010 had the slowest growth America experienced since the Great Depression with a total growth of 9.7%. Despite this slow down, the U.S. still grows faster then most other developed nations. Canada was about the same at 10%, but China grew at only 6% while England and France did a paltry 5% growth. Still better then Japan, which had virtually zero growth and Germany, whose population is actually on the slide.
Every state grew some with the exception of Michigan, which declined 0.6% in the last decade (Michigan is just a complete wreck, it also has one of the highest unemployment rates), the only place that did worse is Puerto Rico, which declined some 2.2%. Texas was the opposite, gaining the most people (4.3 million or 20.6% growth), while Nevada gained the most in proportion to its size (35.1% growth). The only other interesting tidbit is the fact California lagged behind every other western state except Montana in growth with only 10%; guess that is what happens when your state is bankrupt, over-regulated, and run by incompetents (Seriously, that state is in big financial trouble).
As for here in Wisconsin? Gain of 6%, which is decent; no gain in seats but no loss either.
I say Losers and Winners because with every census comes the reapportionment of seats for the House of Representatives. Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts are all losing a seat in the House. New York and Ohio are worse off, they each lose two; what is interesting is of all those states, only Michigan lost population (and Missouri had a 7% increase and still got snookered, more on that later). Meanwhile Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, Arizona, Washington and Nevada all will gain one. Florida comes out of this even better with two new seats, but Texas is the big winner with four, count 'em four new representative seats. Texas is really becoming California’s counterweight, the latter for the first time not gaining a single seat.
In the future (starting with 2012) this latest shift will likely help Republicans and hurt Democrats. Five of the eight states that are ganging seats went for McCain in 2008 and seven of the eight are generally considered "Red States" (the exception being Washington). Of the ten states losing representatives, eight went for Obama in 2008.
Overall Growth
What is also interesting is that the decade of 2000-2010 had the slowest growth America experienced since the Great Depression with a total growth of 9.7%. Despite this slow down, the U.S. still grows faster then most other developed nations. Canada was about the same at 10%, but China grew at only 6% while England and France did a paltry 5% growth. Still better then Japan, which had virtually zero growth and Germany, whose population is actually on the slide.
Every state grew some with the exception of Michigan, which declined 0.6% in the last decade (Michigan is just a complete wreck, it also has one of the highest unemployment rates), the only place that did worse is Puerto Rico, which declined some 2.2%. Texas was the opposite, gaining the most people (4.3 million or 20.6% growth), while Nevada gained the most in proportion to its size (35.1% growth). The only other interesting tidbit is the fact California lagged behind every other western state except Montana in growth with only 10%; guess that is what happens when your state is bankrupt, over-regulated, and run by incompetents (Seriously, that state is in big financial trouble).
As for here in Wisconsin? Gain of 6%, which is decent; no gain in seats but no loss either.