Texas gains four seats as U.S. population up 9.7%

MarketWatch ^ | Dec. 21, 2010, 11:56 a.m. EST | By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Texas will add four seats in the House of Representatives as the Census Department revealed Tuesday that the U.S. population grew at the slowest pace since the Great Depression.

The population as of April 2010 was 308.7 million, up 9.7% over the last decade.

The South and the West led the way in growth, with the West now more populous than the Midwest for the first time. Michigan actually lost population, down 0.6% as the automotive industry struggled.

The population shift will affect 12 out of the 435 seats apportioned in the House. Florida gets two more seats, and New York and Ohio each will lose two.

[wideawake]

Have we had no deaths? That’s been quite a decade!

My mistake.

If by "vast majority" of the 30 million we mean 75% of the 30 million or 22.5 million, this would mean that there was a net natural growth of 7.5 million over 10 years, or 750,000 net new Americans born to Americans each year.

If the death rate were the same - about 0.5% per year, that would mean 1.5 million deaths per year average versus 2.25 new native births, netting out to 750,000.

If we assume that only 90% of the population is native born, that works out to about 44 million native women of childbearing age, of which about 2 million age out every year and 2 million age in every year for a total of 80 million over the period.

So this would imply that only one out of every 20 native born American women of child bearing age have a child in any given year.

Still a number that is very difficult to believe.

[9YearLurker]

According to this, the death rate was .83% per year:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Population_growth_rate

[ridesthemiles]

I’ll bet you $5 that Dirty Harry’s son—Rory, who is currently a Clark County Commissioner that ran in the 2012 election for Governor of Nevada—runs for the new Representative seat in Congress.

Daddy will put as much money as Rory needs into his campaign account.

Rory got whipped in the Nev Gov election.

[ridesthemiles]

It will depend entirely on what part of Nevada gets the district to fill.

[pissant]

I guess Slick Perry’s open border policy is “paying off”

[brytlea]

I can’t remember the numbers they have used thru the years, but it seems that they have used the same number for an impossible amount of time. That’s what has me puzzled. That’s what I’m questioning. Of course, IF an amnesty passes, it seems reasonable to me to put a cap on the number. If they say the number here is 12 million then cap the number at 12 million given amnesty. It would be interesting just to see what the reaction would be.

[se_ohio_young_conservative]

This will be a battleground state in Presidental elections atleast as long as Columbus and Cleveland exist.

But I agree that true bellweather status may be shifting to places like VA and PA.

[Melas]

Agreed. Even states like Nevada where there is no clear party trending from year to year. States like my own might be a worth a truckload of electoral votes, but everyone knows where they’re going before we even have an election. Ohio is moving in that direction as well. You’re becoming increasingly Republican every cycle.

[cableguymn]

Good job, don’t think I didn’t notice :) I am in the 6th. can’t get much better here either. Mpls/Saint Paul is full of commie libs though. hence the reason seeing the 4th and 5th go in to one would be so nice :)