MA Keeps House Seats As Census Releases 2020 Count

MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts will keep all nine of its seats in the U.S. House of Representatives until the next national census in 2030.

The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2020 population count Monday afternoon. That's the count held every 10 years that determines how the 50 states will split up the 435 seats in the lower chamber of Congress. That number also determines how many electoral votes each state gets in presidential elections.

In Massachusetts, the population in the 2020 Census was 7,029,917, up from 6,547,629 in 2010. The state will begin holding public hearings on redistricting the current Congressional districts beginning May 4.

"While the data released today is important because it determines how many Congressional seats and Electoral College votes Massachusetts has, the remaining demographic data that will be used for redrawing our maps will not be released until at least late August,"

said Beth Huang of the Drawing Democracy Coalition. "This leaves a historically short time period for redistricting and makes it all the more important that the public is engaged in the process as early as possible.”

The number of seats in all six New England states remained the same. While northeastern states saw 4.1 percent growth between 2010 and 2020, the Sun Belt and western states added residents at the expense of northern Rust Belt states. That sets up a shift in the balance of power in the House as states like Colorado and Florida, which were among the six states to gain a seat. Texas, with two additional seats, was the only state to gain more than one seat.

The total U.S. population rose 7.4 percent to 331,449,281. It was the second-slowest U.S. population increase ever recorded by the census. Utah was the fastest growing state at 18.4 percent, while West Virginia's 3.2 percent population loss was the biggest decline.

It was the 24th census since a provision calling for a population count was included in the Constitution in 1790, and the ninth time the Census has tried to count every living American. The count, which was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, is meant to capture a snapshot of the U.S. population on April 1, 2020.

The numbers released Monday were just the total count. The Census will release more detailed counts, including demographic breakdowns, beginning on Aug. 16.