MICHIGAN - On April 26, the U.S. Census Bureau held a news conference to announce the initial findings of the 24th decennial census. A census is conducted every 10 years, and the newest findings reflect the population in the United States as of April 1, 2020. The population was recorded at 331,449,281.

The census data plays a vital role in making important economic and political decisions like how many teachers to employ in schools, where to locate businesses and health clinics or where to build new roads. The most important thing that the data is used for is for determining how many representatives each state has in Congress.

During the conference, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo expressed her gratitude to all U.S. residents who participated in the census count.

“I want to thank the American people for their overwhelming participation in the census,” she said.

Dr. Ron S. Jarmin, Acting Director of the U.S. Census Bureau, presented the census data. He explained that great measures were taken to produce the most accurate data. The Census Bureau expanded from 13 to 46 non-English languages in order to assist with underreported populations.

The percent change of population from 2010 to 2020 was 7.4%. This was the second slowest decennial growth since the percent growth of 7.3% from 1930 to 1940.

Today’s release also reported that seven states will each lose one seat in the House of Representatives, including Michigan. The shift of seven seats is the smallest number shifted since this method of congressional apportionment was adopted in 1941. Six states will gain seats, and the other 37 seats will experience no change.

The next step is to evaluate redistricting data, which will be reported to the public by Sept. 30. There will also statistics that dissect the age, race, sex and ethnicity of U.S. residents.

Read more information about the census data at census.gov