We're here today to do something
that has only taken place 23 times in the nation's history.
We're complying with Article 1,
Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution
which mandates the actual enumeration
of the population every 10 years.
The Founding Fathers of our nation had a bold
and ambitious plan - to empower the people
over their new government.
The plan was to count every person living
in the United States, and to use that count
to determine representation in Congress.
Enshrining this mandate
in our Constitution marked a turning point
in world history.Today,
in reporting these first 2010 Census results,
our great American democracy renews itself in the midst
of a changing nation peacefully, fairly,
and openly.This is really an important day
for the American people.And, earlier this morning,
in accordance with the law in fulfillment
of a Constitutional mandate,
I delivered the 2010 Census findings
to the President of the United States.
This is a ritual that has occurred only twenty-two times
other times in American history.
My report to the President included the national
and state populations and the apportionment for the allocation
of seats to the United States House of Representatives based
on the official population count of the 2010 Census.
I told the President also
that the 2010 Census was completed on-time
and under budget - almost $1.9 billion dollars under budget,
which represents more than 25 % of the total
that Congress allocated in 2010 for spending
on the decennial census.
Ultimately, 74 % of U.S. households returned the Census
questionnaire by mail, matching what had been achieved
in the 2000 Census, and exceeding the predictions
of the experts, and halting a three decade decline
in mail back response since 1970.
And so we'd like to express our deep, most sincere thanks
to all those who returned the questionnaire
or even took a few minutes to answer the simple questions
from the almost three-quarter million Census workers
who followed up with the households
that had not mailed back their response.
All of you have helped us paint this latest portrait of America.
Much is riding on the results that we're announcing today.
The Census data will determine how more
than $400 billion dollars is allocated every single year
by the Federal Government and for the next ten years -
to local communities for everything from education,
to senior services, to housing,
to law enforcement and transportation.
And the 2010 Census will help shape the makeup
of state legislatures and decide the allocation
from the different states,
to the U.S. House of Representatives.
So indeed, the 2010 Census will serve as a backbone
for our political and economic system for years to come.
I am proud on behalf of all my colleagues at the Census Bureau
to report to the American public the 2010 Census national
and state population counts, and the apportionment results
for the U.S. House of Representatives.
As you've heard, this is the 23rd time this country has
done this.
At that time, we were just a nation
of 3.9 million people, in 1790.
This is the time when all of us come together to count ourselves
and make possible a critical step in the democracy.
At this point, I am happy and proud
to note we have finished the work required
to produce our first 2010 Census product.
As of April 1, 2010, according to the 2010 Census,
the resident U.S.population is 308,745,538 persons.
This 2010 Census population represents a growth of 9.7 %
over the official population count of 2000.
Now I turn to the implication of the 2010 official Census results
on the membership of the U.S. House of Representatives.
As you know, the Constitutional purpose
of the Census is the redistribution of the membership
of the House of Representatives
across states proportional to the population.
The effect of the official 2010 population counts
at the state level
on Congressional apportionment is a shift of 12 seats,
affecting 18 different states.
Those states gaining seats include Arizona, Florida,
Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Washington,
as you see on the graphic.
Those losing seats are Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York,
Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
For 32 states, there is no change.
Texas gained the most seats this decade, a total of four,
and indeed that state has gained seats
for seven consecutive decades.The next graphic shows a
national snapshot of the 2010 Census apportionment
of the U.S. House of Representatives.
California will have 53 seats.
Texas will have 36.
New York and Florida will each have 27.
Seven states will have only one representative.
The average population size
of each House district will be 710,767 persons.
This is up from 646,952 at this time in 2000.
Over the last one hundred years, the rate of growth
of the U.S. population has gradually slowed.
This is true in many developed societies.
But there is a lot of variation across the decades -
as you can see from the red line on this graphic.
There are two notable decades here - between 1930 and 1940,
the small growth rate of 7.3 % is thought to be related
to the Great Depression of the 1930's.
Between 1950 and 1960, the high growth rate
of 18.5 % reflects the so-called "baby boom."
The percentage growth this last decade, as I stated earlier -
9.7 %, is thus the second lowest of the past century.
So, we have a question from Twitter -
this one from Utah, Dr. Groves.
When and where do we get county data?
Starting in February, state by state,
the Census Bureau will release data that will be used
by the states for redistricting.
I'd like to know the actual budget
from Congress for the 2010 Census.
What's the actual dollar amount?
DR. ROBERT GROVES: Well, Secretary Locke referred
to the 2010 fiscal year budget,
which was about $7.4 billion dollars.
Of that - that $7.4 billion dollars was spent
on Census operations, data collection operations
and the beginning of the processing activities.
And as he noted, of that 7.4 billion, we were able
to return 1.87 billion.
We saved enough money to return that to the Treasury.
In New Mexico - not a lot
of people answered the questionnaire.
It was the lowest responding rate.
What did the Census do to make sure that the accurate count -
that New Mexico had the accurate count?
There are two things.
And actually, this is a great question because it allows me
to go over how we do a Census.
We do, indeed, mail out or deliver questionnaires,
but that's the beginning of a process.
You can think of that as sort of the first half of a Census.
Any household that did not return the questionnaire we sent
them, was followed up in what we call the non-response follow
up step.
That amounted to about 50 .
. . 47 million households.
We knocked on those doors repeatedly.
We visited as many as six times throughout that process.
So the relationship between the mail return rate
and the complete count is really quite a fuzzy one,
because we follow up on every household.
At the end of this process, for every household
on our Master Address File, we have a resolution.
We have a population estimate or we have a population count
through all of our processing and data collection.
So, the Census, as much as we can know from our operations,
is complete in all those areas.
Our next question from Karina on Twitter.
What is the difference between these results today,
and the recent ACS, American Community Survey results?
There are multiple estimates.
This refers to a huge release of small area estimates
that we provided just a few days ago.
There's several differences.
They reflect the period 2005 through 2009.
The counts I just released are April 1, 2010 counts.
There's a time difference between the two.
The second thing is - one of the benefits
of the short form Census was all
of us didn't have a lot of work to do.
It took just minutes to fill this out.
The bad thing about that is there aren't many pieces
of information in the decennial Census.
The American Community Survey, on the other hand,
is rich in characteristic data .
. . socioeconomic data, housing data, travel patterns
of travel to work, and so on.
And so, using those in combination is a wonderful way
to understand this country.
And that's how we use them at the Census Bureau.