The United States had 308,745,538 resident on April 1st, 2010 the Census Bureau revealed on Tuesday, an increase of over 27 million people since 2000. Director Robert Groves also revealed how population shifts would affect the distribution among the states of seats in the House of Representatives. Notably in this time of tightening budgets, the entire 2010 Census was completed for $1.8 Billion below its estimated price tag, saving nearly a quarter of its 2010 budget.

            The Census is mandated by the Constitution in article 1, section 2 to help ensure representative democracy by apportioning representatives among the states. After the 1790 Census there were 105 members of Congress in the lower chamber, each of which represented about 34,000 people. The latest apportionment has each member representing about 711,000 people. The size of the House of Representatives was set by law at 435 in 1913, but their distribution has changed as population has shifted, generally flowing from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West.

            The latest data continued this trend. Texas had the largest gains, picking up four seats, with Florida gaining two. Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington each gained one Representative. The biggest losses were in New York and Ohio which each lost two seats. Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania each lost one district. Beyond the Congress, each seat represents the loss of one electoral vote for the president and hence less power in that race. This could affect the strategies of candidates in the 2012 election: five of the eight states which gained seats were won by McCain in the 2008 presidential race while eight of the ten which are losing seats were won by Obama.