The Census Bureau has sent out its Christmastime gift to its millions — or thousands, or dozens — of fans across the United States: the official Census estimates of the population of each state as of July 1, 2014.

The numbers shouldn’t be regarded as etched in stone: When the head count for the 2010 Census was tabulated, it turned out that the estimates for some states in the later years of the 2000-10 decade had been off by a noticeable margin, and that will probably be the case as this decade goes on as well.