The U.S. Census Bureau plans to release the latest state population counts by April 30, 2021. These numbers, the first results from the 2020 Census, are used to determine how many congressional seats each state has in the House of Representatives.
We’ve received a lot of questions about the upcoming release. I recently spoke to Rebecca Tippett, the founding director of Carolina Demography, about the upcoming release and what’s expected to happen in North Carolina.
If you have additional questions, please email demography@unc.edu and we’ll do our best to answer them!
The Census Bureau will be releasing the apportionment totals by April 30, 2021. These are the state population totals and are used to determine how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives.
In a normal census, this information is released by December 31 in the same year of the census – so we normally would have received this data by December 31, 2020. The data has been delayed by four months because of the impacts of COVID-19 on census data collection and processing. Local data for redistricting has also been delayed: typically, this would be delivered by March 31 but now is not going to be fully delivered until September 30, though the Bureau may make information available earlier in a legacy format.
These delays compress the timeline for redistricting significantly, potentially shifting elections to 2022. According to the NC State Board of Elections: “If changes are needed to the districts of municipal offices elected by district, and the census data is not released in time, elections for these offices scheduled to take place in the fall of 2021 could be postponed until 2022.”
North Carolina is predicted to pick up a 14th seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, based on population estimates and projections made prior to the 2020 Census. So our U.S. House districts will need to be redrawn to account for this change, as well as population changes over the decade.
The apportionment numbers released by April 30 will be our first look at results from the 2020 Census, so everyone’s excited to see these official results. But of greater interest in the data release are the first set of data quality metrics and the demonstration products about the 2020 Census Disclosure Avoidance System and the potential implications this has for the 2020 redistricting files scheduled for release in September.
Many of us are also looking further down the road to the release of information about the census accuracy based on the Post-Enumeration Survey. These data are currently scheduled for release in late 2021 for the nation and early 2022 for states.
Need help understanding population change and its impacts on your community or business? Carolina Demography offers demographic research tailored to your needs.
Contact us today for a free initial consultation.
Contact UsCategories: Carolina Demographics, Census 2020
The Center for Women’s Health Research (CWHR) at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine released the 12th edition of our North Carolina Women’s Health Report Card on May 9, 2022. This document is a progress report on the…
Dr. Krista Perreira is a health economist who studies disparities in health, education, and economic well-being. In collaboration with the Urban Institute, she recently co-led a study funded by the Kate B. Reynolds Foundation to study barriers to access to…
Our material helped the NC Local News Lab Fund better understand and then prioritize their funding to better serve existing and future grant recipients in North Carolina. The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund was established in 2017 to strengthen…
Your support is critical to our mission of measuring, understanding, and predicting population change and its impact. Donate to Carolina Demography today.