After a decade of planning and a head count that took place against the backdrop of an unprecedented pandemic, natural disasters and partisan legal battles, the U.S. Census Bureau is releasing the first numbers from the 2020 census before the end of the month. The state population count conducted every decade determines how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets.
It has been a bumpy road getting to this point. The count faced the once-in-a-century coronavirus pandemic, wildfires, hurricanes, allegations of political interference, fluctuating deadlines and lawsuits. A lot is at stake: The state population figures known as the apportionment count not only determine political power but the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year.
WHY IS THIS DONE?
The U.S. Constitution requires a national head count every 10 years. The results of the state head count determine how the 435 seats in the House of Representatives are divided up among the states in a process known as apportionment. Everyone is counted, including citizens, noncitizens, children, military and civilian federal workers living abroad. While he was in the White House, President Donald Trump attempted to exclude people in the country illegally, even though the Constitution explicitly requires “counting the whole number of persons in each State.” That effort was stopped by President Joe Biden when he took office in January. Not included in the apportionment count are residents of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or the U.S. island areas since they don’t elect House members.
The data being released this month comprises only state population totals and the number of congressional seats each state gets. More detailed data about race, Hispanic origin and housing at smaller geographic levels will come out later this year. The legal deadline for turning in the apportionment numbers was Dec. 31, but the Census Bureau pushed back that date to no later than April 30 because of challenges caused by the pandemic and the need for more time to correct irregularities.