Harris County behind nation, ahead of state in census participation data

Texas may be gaining four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives
as a result of the 2010 census, but Harris County fell below the
national average when it came to actually mailing in those census
forms.

The county recorded a 72 percent participation rate this year,
according to official data from the U. S. Census Bureau. That's just
below the national average of 74 percent and slightly above the
average Texas rate of 71 percent. Texas's average participation rate
slightly improved this year — it was just 70 percent in 2000 — while
the national average remained the same.

While specific data is not available for unincorporated Harris County,
the City of Houston only returned 70 percent of its forms, indicating
that the rest of the county did somewhat better to obtain the 72
percent average.

Despite below-average participation, Texas will gain four
congressional seats as a result of the census due to its rapid
population growth. The number of people in the state increased by 20.6
percent to 25,145,591. That increase is much higher than the rest of
the nation.

The population of the United States as a whole grew 9.7 percent to an
official tally of 308,745,538. It was the smallest increase in the
population by percentage since the 1940 census.

Texas's population growth was somewhat stronger; the increase was less
than that recorded in the 2000 census (22.8 percent) but greater than
the one recorded in 1990 (19.4 percent).

The South was also the nation's fastest-growing region at 14.3
percent. In general, states in the South and West are gaining
congressional seats at the expense of states in the Midwest and
Northeast. The states that will gain seats include South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Utah and Washington. The states
losing seats are Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Louisiana.

Texas will gain more new seats than any other state.