There are now 308,745,538 Americans. That’s according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released the figure earlier today, along with population counts for each of the fifty states. You can see all the data here.
New York State’s population increased by 2.1% to a total of 19,378,102. What does that mean for us? Well, because New York’s rate of population growth was considerably slower than that of the country as a whole, our state will lose two Congressional seats. This continues a decades-old shift of population and political power from the Northeast and Mid-West to the South and West. Texas, for example, gained four Congressional seats. And Nevada was the fastest growing state, with a 35.1% increase.
The Census Bureau has not yet released data for smaller subdivisions, such as counties and cities. More information is expected to be rolled out in the weeks ahead, including fine-grain block statistics in February and March. I’ll be very interested in learning New Rochelle’s official population. (It was 72,182 back in 2000.)
While waiting, map geeks like me can amuse themselves with the following:
- A neat interactive map that illustrates decennial changes in population, population density, and Congressional apportionment.
- A map from the New York Times that illustrates population density and ethnicity. You can zoom in to any area that interests you. Please note that this map is not based on the 2010 Census, but rather on the American Community Survey from 2005 through 2009.