New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that Texas will get two more seats in the House of Representatives when seats are reapportioned based on the 2020 population figures. The population in Texas in 2020 was 29,145,505 - up from 25,268,418 in 2010.
"Texas will gain two seats, and Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat," said Acting Census Director Dr. Ron S. Jarmin. "The states that will have the most representatives in Congress are California with 52 seats, Texas with 38 seats, Florida with 28 seats and New York with 26 seats."
Texas currently has 36 seats in Congress. The number of seats in Congress is set at 435. The size of a state's Congressional delegation is based on its population.
Texas has added approximately 4 million people since 2010. New York and California also increased their population, but not by as much as Texas. Both New York and California will each lose one seat in the House of Representatives as a result.
The nation's overall population growth was 7.4%. That's down from the previous ten-year period, when it was 9.7%.
"We're seeing a slowing of the birth rate. We've also seen reductions in immigration," said UNT Political Science Professor Dr. Kimi King.
"The Census is fundamentally about those shifts. California is actually going to be losing representation as a result of people moving out of the state," she said. "Texas continued to grow at an incredible pace...of about a thousand people a day moving into the state. That's why we are receiving more seats than any other state."
Some observers had expected Texas to gain three new seats instead of two.
"Texas didn't invest any money in Census participation, unlike states like California and New York, which spent close to $100 million each," said attorney Michael Li, the senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program.
The new district maps will be drawn later this year.
"The block-level data that the Texas Legislature will need to draw maps won't be available until mid-August," said Li. "Once that data comes out, Texas will have to hold a special legislative session to draw both its legislative and Congressional maps. There will almost certainly be a lot of fights about where these two new districts go."