2020 Census shows slow growth in Louisiana

Louisiana’s population grew by about 2.7% from the 2010 to the 2020 U.S. Census and will retain its six House of Representative seats, according to information released by the U.S. Census Bureau Monday afternoon.
The data released Monday does not delve further into municipalities or parishes. Gina Raimondo, U.S. Department of Commerce secretary, said redistricting data would be released no later than Sept. 30. That data will give a better look at different areas of states, according to Karen Blake, chief of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Division.
Locally, Berwick is hoping to make the jump from a town to a city, which will hinge on the census data.
As a whole, the state’s population grew from about 4.53 million in the 2010 census to about 4.66 million in the 2020 data. The jump was an increase of 124,385 people.
“The population of most states grew between 2010 and 2020,” said Dr. Ron Jarmin, U.S. Census Bureau acting director.
While the state remained ranked No. 25 in population, it is ranked No. 32 based on the number of new people counted. The 2.7% increase in population ranks No. 41 nationally.
Louisiana is one of 37 states who will not lose a congressional seat.
The census, Raimondo said, was completed not without challenges as the country was enduring the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, wildfires and civil unrest.
Victoria Velkoff, the census bureau’s associate director for Demographic Programs, said the bureau is confident that the data is accurate despite the challenges.
“We measure the quality of the census in many different ways, and one of the ways that we measure the quality of the census is to compare to our population estimates,” she said. “Of course our population estimates are based on the last census and built forward adding births, subtracting deaths, adding in migration.
“So most states are within 1% of our population estimates, which makes us feel very good about those census counts,” Velkoff added.
The South was the region with the largest growth in the country as it grew by 10.2%, or about 11.71 million, from roughly 114.56 million people in 2010 to 126.27 million in 2020.
Although congressional seats are determined by census data, it is used for more, too.
“State and local officials, the federal government, nonprofits all use census data to make decisions that have a direct impact on our lives,” Raimondo said. “We use the data to decide how many teachers we need in our schools, how much funding we need for public housing programs, where to locate a business or a health clinic, where to build new roads. We use the data to make sure the economy is working for everyone. The data is vital.”
Overall, the U.S. population grew about 7.4%, or about 22.7 million, from roughly 308.75 million in the 2010 census to about 331.45 million in 2020.
The country’s growth was lower than the 9.7% it experienced between 2000 census and 2010 census.
“In fact, the growth rate from 2010 to 2020 is the second slowest in U.S. history,” Jarmin said. “The country’s 7.4% increase in population this decade was only slightly more than the 7.3 (%) increase between 1930 and 1940.”