WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The first results of the 2020 U.S. Census were released Monday, and Florida is gaining a seat in the House of Representatives.
Based on census figures tabulated last year, Florida saw enough growth to gain one more congressional seat.
This brings Florida to a total of 28 seats in the House. The Sunshine State will have the third most representatives in the House, only trailing California and Texas.
Texas will be getting two new House seats. Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will also each gain one additional House seat.
Data shows California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will each lose a seat in the House.
The 2020 count faced unprecedented challenges last year due to the pandemic and other natural disasters.
It was predicted that Florida would receive two additional seats with initial estimates.
"For Texas and Florida, the difference between the 2020 Census count and the estimates was within about 1%, so they were still close, so the 2020 counts were slightly lower than our population estimates," said Karen Battle with the U.S. Census Bureau.
There are 435 representatives in the U.S. House for the 50 states, which means now the average population per representative is 761,169. This is a 50,000-person increase from the 2020 Census.
