By T. Scott Boatright

Louisiana’s population growth slowed over the past 10 years, but not enough to cost the state a seat in Congress.

U.S. Census data released Monday showed Louisiana with more than 4.6 million residents, which is approximately 124,000 more than recorded in the 2010 census.

But Louisiana’s 2.7% growth rate was far short of the 7.4% population increase seen across the United States. Louisiana lost a congressional seat after the 2010 census because of low population growth at the time.

The release of the 2020 census data marks the start of political redistricting battles that come every 10 years with the release of new, updated population numbers. The new numbers will by used by to redraw political maps to account for population, but that’s an issue Louisiana won’t have to face after the new census update.

Texas will add two congressional seats based on the new census data while Florida and North Carolina will add one seat each. Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are all states that will lose seats based on the new census numbers.

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