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The 2010 Census on Tuesday officially listed Utah's population at exactly 2,763,885, up 23.8 percent over the past decade. That is enough to give the state a long-expected, hard-fought-for fourth seat in the U.S. House.
"When you're talking about votes, more is always better," Utah Republican Party Chairman Dave Hansen said. "In presidential politics, this means we will have six electoral votes [the same as state's number of members of Congress] instead of five, so we may have a little more influence. We gain while someone else loses in the House, presidential politics and federal funding."
Counts released Tuesday show Utah had the third-fastest rate of growth among the states over the past decade (neighboring Nevada was the fastest), although the recession has slowed growth here during the past couple of years.
Utah's population increased by 530,716 people since the 2000 Census — the equivalent of adding the combined population of large Utah and Weber counties to the state during that time.
"Utah's population increased by 145 people each day during the decade. That's tremendous growth," Utah state demographer Juliette Tennert said.
The population for the nation as a whole was 308,745,538, up 9.7 percent over the decade. That was the second-slowest rate of growth for any decade over the past century — ahead of only the Great Depression 1930s. It also shows Utah's growth rate was about 2.5 times faster than the national growth rate.
New numbers show that Utah is the nation's 35th largest state — and a bit smaller than Kansas and a bit larger than Nevada. After the 2012 election, Utah will have more House members (and electoral votes) than 15 states, the same as five others — but fewer than 29 states.
The Census Bureau released only overall population counts for the nation and states on Tuesday, as required by law, to allow apportioning seats in the U.S. House for the 2012 elections. More detailed results for counties and cities — and demographic data about them — is scheduled for release next year.
This time data held expected good news for Utah with the addition of the fourth House seat. In 2000, news was bitter: Utah just missed that seat then. A final audit later showed that if Utah had just 80 more people that year, it would have received the last available House district, which instead went to North Carolina.
Upset Utah leaders then waged unsuccessful lawsuits all the way to the Supreme Court challenging the 2000 count methods, including contending that out-of-country LDS missionaries should have been counted in Utah (they still are not this year). Later, Utah members joined in an unsuccessful fight in Congress to expand the House by two seats, to give one to Utah and one to the District of Columbia.
"In order for Utah to have gained a fifth House seat this time around, we would have needed additional growth of 400,000 people beyond what we had. So it wasn't even close this time, unlike 2000," Tennert said.
With the new seat, several politicians have already started jockeying for possible runs for the new fourth seat — including outgoing Utah House Speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, and Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman. "The fun now begins as you figure out how to divide into four districts, and how many dozens of people will run" for the new seat, Hansen said.
University of Utah research economist Pam Perlich said about 70 percent of Utah's growth during the decade came from "natural increase" from Utah's highest-in-the-nation birth rate. She said the other 30 percent came from in-migration from other states and nations, mostly during the early part of the decade when Utah's economy was booming and people came seeking jobs.
A decade earlier in the 1990s, the birth-to-immigration split for growth was 60-40. "So the proportion has shifted slightly to be more internally driven," Perlich said.
Tennert added, "As migration slowed when the recession hit, our high natural increase [from births] kept us growing."
Perlich said much of the natural increase comes from the region's Mormon culture, which places a high value on families and children.
The new population count is a bit lower than the 2.8 million population for 2009 estimated by the state and Census last year.
"I don't think the Utah population is shrinking. We're still growing. While we used the best data we had [in previous estimates], there is always a margin of error. I'm comfortable with the new numbers," and old numbers were probably overestimated, Tennert said.
Perlich said Utah also appears still to be having net in-migration, but people are now coming for a much different reason than when they came seeking jobs early in the last decade.
"A lot of people who lose their jobs elsewhere are now coming home here to live with their families," she said. "We have a huge family network here. When people are out of work, they tend to go back home."
While Utah has been fast-growing, it apparently still has plenty of elbow room. It has only 32.57 people per square mile, a density that ranks 41st among the states.
U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said $400 billion in federal funding will be divided next year — and every year for a decade —using the 2010 Census results.
Tennert said, "There are a number of federal programs tied to the Census, and even state sale tax distribution. Funding for transportation, education and all sortsof things are tied to this, which is why it is important that we get it right."
Groves noted that for the first time in the nation's history, the West is now more populous than the Midwest.
The Census reported that California is the most populous state with 37.2 million residents. Wyoming is the least populous with 563,626 residents.
Over the past decade, Texas gained the most people, up 4.3 million residents to 25.1 million. Nevada has gained the most residents as a percentage of its 2000 census count, growing 35.1 percent to 2,700,551.
White House downplays political impact
President Barack Obama's spokesman says he doesn't expect the results of the new census to have a "huge practical impact" on national politics.
Robert Gibbs said despite migration to Republican-leaning states in the South and West, he didn't see any reason why both parties wouldn't remain competitive in those regions.
The once-a-decade government count will be used to reapportion the 435 House seats among the 50 states. Texas, a strong GOP state, gained four House seats.
Source • The Associated Press —
Some highlights from the census
Which states gained or lost? • Texas gained four House seats and Florida picked up two, while New York and Ohio each lost two seats in the new census count. Other winners included Utah, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina and Washington (they each gained one seat). States losing one seat each were Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Goliath and David • California is the most populous state with 37.2 million residents. Wyoming is the least populous with 563,626 residents.
Texas, Nevada grow • Since the 2000 census, Texas gained the most people, up 4.3 million residents to 25.1 million. Nevada has gained the most residents as a percentage of its 2000 census count, growing 35.1 percent to 2,700,551.
South, West growing fast • The South had the fastest growth since 2000, at 14.3 percent; the West was close behind at 13.8 percent; the Northeast had 3.2 percent growth while the Midwest had 3.9 percent.
Only state to shrink • Michigan was the only state with a decline, at 0.6 percent.
The Associated Press