RALEIGH – A lot of people have been moving to the Old North State in since the turn of the century. Why wouldn’t they? Our beautiful state has A LOT to offer – the number one business climate in the nation; a diverse territory of beaches, plains, sand hills, and mountains; an unparalleled quality of life; and, a culture of that stands up with the best.
North Carolina is now the 9th most populous state in the nation, gaining residents while many other states are losing them. The growth is likely to change our political representation as well: When the next census is complete in 2020, North Carolina is likely to gain a seat in congress.
“[…] 13 of the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives would shift to fast-growing states from those that are growing more slowly or losing population. Congress capped the size of the House in 1929, with each state getting at least one and the rest divvied up based on population.
Texas stands to be the big winner, gaining two seats, Brace said, while North Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Oregon would each gain one. They would come at the expense of New York, West Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, which would each lose a seat.
Brace said if population trends continue, there could be more seats moving from state to state after the 2020 census, but North Carolina’s 14th seat is a near certainty.[…]”
However, it may be our a while more until the next bump up in representation, as our rate of growth has been tapering off this decade versus the first of the millennium.
“North Carolina’s population is no longer growing at the rate it did in recent decades, but it’s still enough to likely get another seat in Congress after the 2020 census.
North Carolina added an estimated 112,820 residents in the year ending last July 1, bringing the state’s population to 10,383,620, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Wednesday.
The state remains the ninth largest in the country, after Georgia and ahead of Michigan. Georgia added 106,420 residents.
North Carolina’s population increased 1.1 percent in the past year, outpacing the national growth rate of 0.6 percent. The Census Bureau estimates that nearly 327.2 million people lived in the U.S. on July 1.
Though it may not feel like it in the Triangle or Charlotte, population growth in North Carolina has eased up this decade.
The state is on pace to grow about 11 percent between 2010 and 2020, the slowest rate of growth since the 1860s. The state’s population grew an average of 15.6 percent per decade in the 20th century and swelled 18.5 percent in the first decade of the 21st.”
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