This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For 10 years, Utah was patiently awaiting the 4th seat that the state so narrowly missed after the 2000 count.
Now that Utah finally got its fourth seat, the question becomes when will it get it's fifth?
Obviously, the 2020 count is a long way off, but it is conceivable – although maybe a bit of a long shot – that Utah could land its fifth congressional seat as early as the next Census.
At this point, I should plug this handy apportionment calculator that handled the math that is too complicated for me to do on my own.
Assuming the other 49 states keep growing for the next 10 years as they did from 2000 to 2010, Utah would need to get it's population up to 3,514,167 people to land the final seat in the 2020 apportionment (barely edging out Colorado).
If Utah, like the other states, continues its same growth rate (23.8 percent, the third highest in the nation) the state would have 3,420,726 people, about 94,000 shy of the final seat.
But if Utahns know anything, it's having babies, so get busy. Some ambitious whippersnapper is counting on you to earn him his congressional seat in 2020.
— Robert GehrkeTwitter: @RobertGehrke