Santo Benitez, 27, and his family moved from North Carolina to what he calls a nice and quiet neighborhood of North Brentwood. Santo is pictured with his children, from left to right, Diego Benitez, 10, Santo Benitez, 27, holding his daughter Juliana Benitez, 3 months old, Jonathan Benitez, 6, and Brian Benitez, 7. Santo's wife was at work at the time of this photograph.Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post/Getty Images
The number of people - citizens as well as legal and illegal immigrants - who called the United States their home stood at 308,745,538 on April 1. The figures were released by the Census Bureau Tuesday as part of its 2010 national population survey, conducted every 10 years. The snapshot picked up other notable trends:
1. Growth declines
The U.S. population has grown from 281.4 million a decade ago, but that rate of growth was only 9.7 per cent, the lowest since the Great Depression. The declining U.S. growth rate since 2000 is due partly to the economic meltdown in 2008, which brought U.S. births and illegal immigration to a near standstill compared with previous years.
However, the United States is still growing quickly relative to other developed nations. The population in France and England each increased roughly 5 per cent over the past decade, while in Japan the number is largely unchanged, and Germany's population is declining. China grew at about 6 per cent; Canada's growth rate is roughly 10 per cent.
The only state that lost people was Michigan, which includes the devastated motor city of Detroit. Its population slipped 0.6 per cent. Puerto Rico, a self-governing U.S. commonwealth, also lost population, dropping 2.2 per cent.
The fastest-growing state was Nevada, home to the gambling and entertainment haven Las Vegas. Nevada grew by 35.1 per cent, even though its housing market has been one of the most severely hit in the economic downturn.
2. Electoral map changes
The release of the figures kicks off the once-a-decade, state-by-state fight over redrawing congressional lines to ensure each House district represents roughly the same number of people, as required by the U.S. Constitution.
The process, known as redistricting, is intensely partisan in many states as the parties fight to draw the boundaries in a way that makes House districts more reliably Republican or Democratic.
States that gain seats must determine how to carve the new districts, with the party in power in each state looking for maximum political advantage. States that lose seats will decide which districts to combine, meaning some House incumbents will face each other in the 2012 election.
"Now everyone can start to figure out who has a target on their back," said Tim Storey, a redistricting expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
3. Republican states gain
The census figures show a shift affecting 18 states taking effect when the 113th Congress takes office in 2013.
Several states are losing population - and political clout. The census estimates show a population shift from Democratic states in the Northeast and Midwest to Republican strongholds such as Texas, Utah and South Carolina, giving those states more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Texas will gain four new House seats, and Florida will gain two. Gaining one each are Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington. The South had the fastest growth since 2000, at 14.3 per cent, the Census Bureau said. The West was close behind at 13.8 per centWhile the population trend may benefit the Republicans in the short term, growth in the Hispanic minority, traditionally Democratic Party supporters, is largely fuelling those regions and may result in long-term gains for the Democrats.
4. Democratic states lose
Pro-Obama states in the Northeast and Midwest are losing population. As a result, Ohio and New York will lose two House seats each. The Northeast had 3.2-per-cent growth while the Midwest had 3.9 per cent, the Census Bureau said.
Losing one House seat are Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
For the first time in its history, Democratic-leaning California will not gain a House seat after a census.
House Democrats played down the negative impact and said they would have their own opportunities for gains with the growth of Hispanic and other party constituencies in Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Washington.
5. Hispanics expand
The U.S. Hispanic minority is rapidly transforming the United States and will nearly triple to about 130 million by mid-century, census data show.
"For a long time Latinos were a fact of life in the American Southwest, and that was it," said John Weeks, a professor of geography and director of the International Population Center at San Diego State University. "But over the last 20 years, there has been just a mushrooming of migrants into places like Charlotte [North Carolina] originally brought there to do construction."
Latinos are leading the transformation of the United States, where ethnic and racial minorities are expected to become the majority by 2050, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections. By then, nearly one in three U.S. residents will be Latino, the Census Bureau projects.
There are more than 45 million Hispanics in the United States, double the number 20 years ago, according to the American Community Survey that drew on five-year estimates from 2005 to 2009.
"They are younger than whites, they're younger than blacks … they're in their family-creation years, and there's been relatively high immigration at least up to the [2007-2009]recession," said Audrey Singer, a demographer with Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, explaining the rapid rise in the minority's population growth.
AP/AFP/Reuters