According to Greg Harper, a demographer with the Census Bureau, whether Bell County cities gain a slice of that increase will not likely be known until March.
He said the estimates, released in December, are used to determine reallocation of federal funds, but don’t affect congressional lineup in the states.
“That has to wait until the Census count (April 1, 2010),” he said during a recent phone interview.
“The estimate may show trends but actual Census numeration is what affects congressional apportionment,” he said.
“If trends do result in an increase, Texas could gain congressmen in 2010.”
Temple Mayor Bill Jones III met the Census figures with enthusiasm and figures Texas will continue to grow, particularly along Interstate 35.
“I look forward for the population of the state to double between 2040 and 2050 and the vast majority of that growth will be seen along the I-35 corridor,” he said.
“That will have a profound impact on our community, the demographics of our city, the growth of our city and the vitality of our city for the coming decades,” he said.
He agreed with the demographer that the official Census figures will mean additional representatives and representative district realignment.
“Texas is going to pick up more seats in the House of Representatives and that’s going to mean realignment of congressional districts …” he said.
“We’re probably going to see two more seats in the House of Representatives after the 2010 Census,” he added.
Lee Peterson, president of the Temple Economic Development Corp., said that growth, if Census numbers do trickle down locally, is important to the city.
“I just think it’s tremendously important that we continue to grow. That helps build our whole economy as we continue to grow our population and add new housing, which is a very important part of our local economy,” he said.
“If you have more folks, you have more folks shopping and those people pay sales tax and that helps us do all the things we need to in order to make Temple a better place to live,” he said.
Harper said Texas’ 500,000 population growth estimate is the highest in the nation and seventh fastest growth by percentage.
He said growth is attributable to three components.
“We look at it in terms of components of change, that being internal migration, international migration, and births and deaths.”
Harper said that about 247,000, or nearly half of the estimated change in population, is because of a “natural increase” of births versus deaths.
He said about 141,000 of that amount is because of internal migration, which is people moving to Texas from other states, and about 109,000 of the increase comes from international migration, which is people moving to Texas from other countries.
Jones said specific things attract people to the state of Texas.
“We have jobs, we have a population that’s young and we’ve got great educational institutions in the state of Texas,” he said. “There are many, many things that people around the country and around the world are coming to Texas to share in, and Temple is going to see the benefits of that migration to this state.”
The total U.S. population was estimated at 301.6 million last July 1, Harper said.
The Census Bureau is required to count the population every 10 years. In addition to allocating seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the official count also allocates electoral votes.
rstinson@temple-telegram.com
