Va., N.C. populations grow, but no political power gained

Virginia gained nearly 1 million residents in the past decade, only to be outdone by North Carolina, which grew by almost 1.5 million, according to data from the 2010 census released Tuesday.

The figures revealed that Virginia now has more than 8 million residents, a first for the state. North Carolina's population grew to 9.5 million.

Both states will keep the same number of congressional seats - Virginia has 11, North Carolina 13 - as the government divvies up the 435 spots in the U.S. House of Representatives based on state population.

Nationally, Republicans stand to gain power, as the biggest population gains came in the GOP-leaning West and South. The growth of those regions is a "continuation of a multi-decade trend," U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves said Tuesday.

The national and state population figures released Tuesday are the first batch of data from the 2010 census, which is a national effort to count every man, woman and child as of April 1. Detailed figures - including city populations and race, age and gender counts - will be released in February and March.

Overall, Virginia's population growth rate of 13 percent was higher than the national average. The state didn't grow nearly as fast as its Southern neighbors, though, said Isaac Wood, House race editor for Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball website, based at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

"Virginia is stuck between two regions that have had two very different experiences," Wood said. Most states in the Northeast saw growth of less than 5 percent. States that lost seats as populations declined or growth rates slowed are Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Texas gained the largest number of congressional seats, with four. Other states to add seats are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.

The reapportionment will be in effect for the 2012 House elections.

"The growth is occurring in states that historically are Republican," Wood said. "And those states are controlled by Republican legislatures - they draw the lines and will ensure that Republicans have a good shot at winning those seats."

Wood said that if the reapportionment changes had occurred in 2008, Barack Obama would have received six fewer electoral votes in the presidential election; he won with 365 votes to McCain's 173.

In addition to congressional seats, population counts are used to apportion $440 billion in spending on schools, highways, social services and more. Virginia's population increase wasn't dramatic enough to make major changes in federal funding formulas, Wood said.

He also said the detailed statistics due for release in 2011 are expected to show an explosion of growth in Northern Virginia and increasingly fewer people in the rural southwest part of the state.

In North Carolina, the population change was nearly double the national growth rate. That state is the 10th-largest by population.

The United States as a whole expanded by more than 27 million people, a growth rate of 9.7 percent. As of April 1, the nation's population stood at 308,745,538, according to the Census Bureau.

Groves pointed out that the nation's growth rate in the last decade was nearly the slowest of the past century. It was ahead of only the 1930s, when growth dipped during the Great Depression.

"A lot of developed countries around the world are slowing in their growth rate," Groves said. "Part of it is that, and part of it may be the recession. We'll never be able to know."

For the first time in 20 years, Michigan experienced a population decline. That state - and particularly its largest city, Detroit - has been hit hard by the recession.

Nevada had the largest population gains for the second decade in a row. After experiencing more than 60 percent population growth from 1990 to 2000, Nevada saw its number of residents increase an additional 35 percent in the past decade.

Meghan Hoyer, (757) 446-2293, meghan.hoyer@pilotonline.com