Well done Rhode Island — our congressional delegation remains a hard four! US News reports in “Census Surprise: Rhode Island Keeps Both US House Seats:”
The state’s population increased by 4.3%, from about 1.05 million residents in the 2010 census to nearly 1.1 million in 2020, the agency reported. Demographers and political experts have been warning for years that the nation’s geographically smallest state would lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as its population stagnated and other states grew.
The Boston Globe reports:
For the last three years, population projections have shown that Rhode Island could go from being the most over-represented state, with one House member for about 530,000 residents, to the most underrepresented, with one representative for more than 1 million people.
But on Monday, Census Bureau Acting Director Ron Jarmin announced that Rhode Island is one of 37 states that will keep the same number of House seats, while seven states will lose seats: California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
So how much did we grow?
Rhode Island’s population now stands at 1,097,379, up by 44,812 or 4.3 percent from the 2010 census.
Sadly, a number of red states are gaining seats. We have our work cut out for us.