2020 US Census Shows Possible Future Changes To Political Landscape

The data collected from the 2020 Census is out and it shows the U.S. population is growing at its slowest rate in nearly a century.

The total U.S. population is now about 331.5 million, up 7.4% since 2010.

The census showed Oklahoma's population is now just shy of 4 million people, that is about a 5.5% increase from 10 years earlier.

The 2020 census said more Americans are moving south and west, from blue states to red ones, which could impact the future of our political landscape.

Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia and New York all lost one of their seats in the House of Representatives. And so did California, for the first time ever.

"Cost of living. People aren't moving to California quite the way they used to because it's really expensive in much of California,” said Claremont Mckenna College political professor, Dr. Jack Pitney.

Oklahoma will keep all five of its seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

North Carolina, Florida, Oregon, Montana and Colorado are each picking up one seat in the house. Texas is picking up two. Four of those six states voted republican in the 2020 presidential election.

"It's a nice confirmation of what we've been watching, the kind of movement away from California into Texas, largely on the basis of housing cost," said Kinder Institute for Urban Research Founding Director, Dr. Stephen Klineberg.

But because the census data was collected during a pandemic, some are questioning the results.

"We undercounted in urban areas, mostly because those were the areas that were hardest hit by COVID, and people did not want to open their doors," said KHOU11 Political Analyst Bob Stein.

In addition to determining how much weight each state holds in the House of Representatives, the census also determines the allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding.