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* NPR…
For the 2020 census, all states were not counted equally well for population numbers used to allocate political representation and federal funding over the next decade, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Thursday.
A follow-up survey the bureau conducted to measure the national tally’s accuracy found significant net undercount rates in six states: Arkansas (5.04%), Florida (3.48%), Illinois (1.97%), Mississippi (4.11%), Tennessee (4.78%) and Texas (1.92%).
It also uncovered significant net overcount rates in eight states — Delaware (5.45%), Hawaii (6.79%), Massachusetts (2.24%), Minnesota (3.84%), New York (3.44%), Ohio (1.49%), Rhode Island (5.05%) and Utah (2.59%).
For the other 36 states, as well as Washington, D.C., the bureau did not find statistically significant net over- or undercount rates.
Official release is here.
A 2 percent undercount means Illinois grew by about a quarter million rather than shrank by 18,000.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Gov. Pritzker…
Following a review of 2020 U.S. Census Data, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today that Illinois was undercounted by nearly 2%. This means that Illinois’ population grew by nearly 250,000 people and is now above 13 million people for the first time in Illinois history. In response, Governor JB Pritzker released the following statement:
“I ran for governor on a promise to be our state’s best chief marketing officer and reverse the trend of outmigration we’ve seen over the past few decades. These latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show that Illinois is now a state on the rise with a growing population,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “From boundless economic opportunities, to booming economic development and leading institutions of higher education, Illinois has so much to offer our new residents. While it is disappointing that these numbers were not reflected in the initial count, I have already spoken to members of our congressional delegation and will work tirelessly to ensure Illinois receives its fair share of federal funding. I look forward to celebrating this development with all Illinoisans, including those who routinely badmouth our state.”
*** UPDATE 2 *** US Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi…
Earlier this year, I wrote to the Census Bureau regarding my serious concern that the agency had undercounted Illinois, potentially putting our proportional federal representation and funding at risk. I’m glad to see that the Bureau’s additional review of their data has revealed the truth: that our state’s population is growing and now exceeds 13 million for the first time in our history. These new findings reaffirm that our state is on the upswing in every way, and I’m committed to ensuring that we get our fair share of federal funding.
…Adding… Senate President Don Harmon…
This is excellent news. It confirms what most of us already know: Illinois is a great place to live and work. We need more people cheering for Illinois and fewer spelunking for misery.
…Adding… House Speaker Chris Welch…
This correction confirms what Democrats have been saying all along: Illinois is growing, Illinois is thriving, and Illinois has so much to offer.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 11:50 am
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So people weren’t fleeing the state in droves?
Comment by The Real Captain Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 11:52 am
I’m sure IPI and Center Square will claim this is some kind of conspiracy and fraud by the dems to influence the election.
Comment by Vader Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 11:54 am
Has anyone told the Tribune editorial board yet?
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 11:55 am
Someone check on Greg Bishop. /s ?!?
Comment by Anyone Remember Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 11:55 am
Or all the Negative Nellies at ILGOP?
Comment by Big Dipper Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 11:56 am
==After Jan 6th, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was an intentional strategy - especially if it happened in other”blue” states.==
C’mon, we can see right in the OP that it wasn’t confined to blue states.
Comment by Arsenal Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:01 pm
So will we have to again redraw the legislative and congressional maps?
Comment by Just Wondering Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:01 pm
Intentional strategy to undercount blue states?
5 of the 6 undercounts are Red states.
6 of the 8 overcounts are Blue states.
Comment by Lucky Pierre Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:03 pm
==So will we have to again redraw the legislative and congressional maps? ==
There could be an intriguing case for this under Reynolds v. Sims. Tho I suspect the difference isn’t big enough to save that last CD for IL.
Comment by Arsenal Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:05 pm
So believing the Tribbie Exodus Creed is a big “never mind”
Comment by Annonin' Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:06 pm
Well, as a former census worker who spent the summer going door to door throughout central Illinois trying to do an accurate count, I can say: It is not my fault [banned punctuation]
Comment by G'Kar Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:06 pm
People are fleeing to Illinois. Keep up the good work, JB.
Comment by PublicServant Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:12 pm
“After Jan 6th, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was an intentional strategy - especially if it happened in other”blue” states”
Save the conspiracy stuff - the NPR article illustrated that the undercount was mostly in Red states…
“found significant net undercount rates in six states: Arkansas (5.04%), Florida (3.48%), Illinois (1.97%), Mississippi (4.11%), Tennessee (4.78%) and Texas (1.92%).”
Comment by Donnie Elgin Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:15 pm
I understand that undercounts happen, but I have trouble understanding significant overcounts. Do they double count people, did people list children that don’t exist?
Comment by May soon be required Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:19 pm
The Census has consistently undercounted Illinois’ population over the past decade. It’s a real problem. Even now, the July 2021 annual estimates had our population declining by 1% from that already-too-low 2020 figure. It’s made quality economic research more difficult while fueling certain talking points that have been misguided or incorrect once more data comes in.
Comment by Frank Manzo IV Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:21 pm
“So people weren’t fleeing the state in droves?”
They were, they were just ‘replaced’ with even more people with better paying jobs - as evidenced by tax collections.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:22 pm
- May soon be required - Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:19 pm:
From the linked report:
“possible overcount: This occurred when a respondent indicated that a person usually lives or stays at college, in the military, at their job, in jail, at a nursing home, with relatives, at a seasonal home, or other places.”
Comment by Google Is Your Friend Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:25 pm
And I guess I’m still supposed to believe the ACS numbers that hundreds of thousands have started leaving again, too?
Comment by Nick Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:30 pm
“A 2 percent undercount means Illinois grew by about a quarter million rather than shrank by 18,000.”
I guess folks were fleeing Illinois in reverse.
– MrJM
Comment by MisterJayEm Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:32 pm
Would this impact the number of congressional districts we are supposed to have?
Comment by illinifan Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:32 pm
Folks, the story isn’t behind a paywall …
During a press briefing on Wednesday, bureau officials emphasized the follow-up survey’s estimates, which were delayed largely because of the pandemic, will not change each state’s share of representation in the House or the Electoral College.
…
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:43 pm
Just for a frame of reference, according to IDPH’s website births out-paced deaths during the 2010-2019 period by 493,107
(1,547,755 births & 1,054,648 deaths)
Comment by Stu Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:48 pm
This will make Gov. Pritzker’s chances of re-election even better. The GOP can’t spin this and say people are leaving IL in droves. That happened during the Rauner years, and Pritzker turned it around. Illinois would be dumb to change administrations now.
Comment by Fivegreenleaves Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:53 pm
Oof. That’s a pretty big delta–like missing Springfield and Peoria combined.
I wonder if it was a statewide issue, or just confined to specific regions. That is, did Downstate not lose as many people as we first thought–or did Chicago just grow even more?
Comment by Benjamin Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:55 pm
I concur with @47th Ward. The Tribune Editorial Board took a massive L here. I expect absolutely NO apologies from them.
Comment by Hot Taeks Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:00 pm
Decades ago there was a push to use sampling to develop more accurate census results. The result would have been an increase in number of young people of color and a decrease in white wealthy people. The Republicans stopped this scientific approach for their political purposes.
Comment by City Guy Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:04 pm
I too am interested in knowing what the regional data at the county level looks like as you compare undercounts and overcounts.
It could possibly benefit one party over another if, say, most overcounting occurred in more rural areas of the country and undercounting occurred in suburban/urban areas.
There was a large discrepancy in Aurora with the preliminary numbers compared to these, possibly faulty, census results which definitely affected the mapmaking procedure in Kane County.
I know I’m feeding to the fire but…
Comment by Blue to the Bone Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:08 pm
what the what? and what happens with Congress?
Comment by Amalia Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:12 pm
- MisterJayEm - Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 12:32 pm:
“A 2 percent undercount means Illinois grew by about a quarter million rather than shrank by 18,000.”
The state could ask for a special census. I suggest they begin by looking at those NW center Chicago and inner burbs abutting up against Oak Park.
Comment by The Hills 60010 Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:14 pm
Is Re-Remap a word? It might need to be.
Comment by Central IL Centrist Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:19 pm
Will the new numbers be used to help determine
Federal funding allocations or do we just have to live with the mistake? Hope not.
Comment by illinifan Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:26 pm
Can we get our congressional seat back, please?
Comment by Nick Name Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:30 pm
Florida’s undercount cost them an additional House seat (771K people),and it might have come from New York (660K people overcounted).
Comment by Jibba Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:43 pm
As I recall, New York cam within a couple hundred inhabitants of not losing a congressional seat. Imagine if the Census Bureau overcounted just a little bit more.
Comment by SAP Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:46 pm
==This will make Gov. Pritzker’s chances of re-election even better. The GOP can’t spin this and say people are leaving IL in droves.==
I think you’re overestimating how much the average voter cares about statistics.
Comment by Arsenal Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:54 pm
I looked in the pdf to see if it would then say where Illinois ranked in population growth then, but it wasn’t said.
Comment by Blake Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 1:57 pm
“The GOP can’t spin this and say people are leaving IL in droves.”
Sure, because that would be a lie, and there’s no way the GOP would ever do that.
But it also doesn’t really matter now.
Their mission has been accomplished - ‘leaving in droves’ has reached meme status as a phrase that can be used as a shortcut to thinking.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 2:03 pm
===they were just ‘replaced’ with even more people with better paying jobs===
The real reason the IPI/GOP/Trib-types care. If the poor leave, how will they exploit them?
===Is Re-Remap a word?===
Like a ‘We Do’ Redo, this is a Remap Recap. Or as the kids might say, a bit sus Census.
Comment by thechampaignlife Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 2:07 pm
==As I recall, New York cam within a couple hundred inhabitants of not losing a congressional seat. Imagine if the Census Bureau overcounted just a little bit more.==
They lost a seat to Minnesota by less than hundred people. Both states have over counts but Minnesota over count was larger (more than 100 people) than NY.
Comment by twowaystreet Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 2:17 pm
So no Illinois exodus? Got it. I’m sure we can count on apologies from the GOP, Wirepoints, IPI, Trib edit board, every GOP candidate any minute now. Any. Minute.
Comment by New Day Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 2:40 pm
Skillful statement by the governor. Well done.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 2:59 pm
You have to love the last line of the Gov’s statement. Truly.
Comment by Montrose Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 3:07 pm
I normally don’t listen to the morning show on WMAY. Tomorrow I might tune in just to see how Greg Bishop tries to spin this if he even brings it up at all.
Comment by Club J Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 3:15 pm
This means Illinois is still the 5th most populous state and was not passed by Pennsylvania.
Comment by TNR Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 3:19 pm
I’ll take the statistician’s word on it, but I don’t understand how they can take a sample and from that be confident that they missed a quarter million people when they tried to count everyone. It’s probably right but I can’t follow that logic.
Comment by Perrid Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 3:29 pm
Whose gonna break the news to Terry Martin?
Comment by Boone's is Back Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 3:31 pm
==The GOP can’t spin this and say people are leaving IL in droves.==
Sure they can. Outmigration is outmigration, no matter how you spin it. Plus they can still compare IL to overall US growth and other states, which it still severely lags.
==That happened during the Rauner years, and Pritzker turned it around.==
You’re trusting the mid-decade counts when the US Census Bureau just admitted they miscounted the big census? You’re implying Illinois’ entire population gain occurred in 2019.
Comment by City Zen Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 3:34 pm
==reverse the trend of outmigration==
But we haven’t been losing population over the last few decades. We actually grew at a higher rate 91-00 and 01-10. We’ve lost congressional seat over that time because we were not growing at fast as some other states.
2010 Illinois population was 12.8 million
2000 Illinois population was 12.4 million
1990 Illinois population was 11.4 million
Comment by twowaystreet Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 3:50 pm
City Zen is likely right. On City Zen’s first part, hence why I wonder where we rank in population growth. Was our percentage growth percentage still 48th or did we move up the rankings?
Comment by Blake Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 3:53 pm
@twowaystreet - I thought the same thing. Illinois has never had a decade of population loss. It came close in 1980-1990, but even then our growth was larger than last decade. JB specifically mentioning “decades” is a blatant false statement.
The problem here is multi-faceted. It’s not like the US Census Bureau undercounted what was still reported as a net gain. The undercount not only resulted in a negative outcome, but made us look like an extreme outlier. And since these bad numbers have been circulating for almost a year now, Illinois is going to be perceived as a net loser. It’s not much different than someone tweeting false information that gets thousands of shares while the retraction goes unnoticed. The damage is done and hard to reverse.
Comment by City Zen Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 4:11 pm
I can understand an undercount where you miss the hard-to-count, but how do you overcount a state’s population by nearly 7%, like Hawaii?
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 4:11 pm
==Like a ‘We Do’ Redo, this is a Remap Recap. Or as the kids might say, a bit sus Census.==
I propose using the current “new” maps for this election only, then next year go back to the drawing board and create new maps (GA, congressional, judiciary, Cook County Board of Review) using these new figures. Which will be in use until after the 2030 census.
Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 4:14 pm
Now the entire spelunker narrative is kaput. First it was “Illinois is a fiscal doom hole.” Now it’s “exodus.” Good. The professional Illinois trashers have bad intent and are dishonest players. Their real goal is to strip unions, slash regulations, slash government, etc., and remake us into a low income red state.
California is liberal doom HQ for the right and GOP, and it has a huge budget surplus.
Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 4:17 pm
“Democrat conspiracy”.
Thanks Lucky…..
That was the last square I needed on my “How A Trumper Would Explain This” bingo card…..I GOT BINGO!!!!!!
Does that mean I get a Confederate Flag for a prize?
Or a MTG Best Of Collection?
Comment by btowntruthfromforgottonia Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 4:46 pm
===I can understand an undercount where you miss the hard-to-count, but how do you overcount a state’s population by nearly 7%, like Hawaii?===
Duplicate responses, mainly.
Comment by Nick Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 4:53 pm
Everyday I used to read Tribune stories and op-eds telling me all of these people were moving out of Illinois, and yet traffic was still a mess and everywhere I went there were crowds of people.
Now we’re officially over 13 million residents, and the Tribune Tower is an empty condo building. Also, if everyone was packing their bags, you’d think converting it to condos would be a terrible idea, right?
Do you think Bruce Dold regrets leading the U-Haul brigade, or is he happy in retirement, presumably out of state? Wherever he is, I hope he understands that he can think whatever he wants, believe what he wants to believe, but facts still matter and the fact is, he was pushing a lot of baloney on his editorial page.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 5:00 pm
Or at least duplicate responses were the main reason for Hawaii. There are also those who were counted but actually live in another state, and an ‘other reason’ category.
All states have a mix of, well, over-counting and under-counting. Illinois alas just had a way higher omissions rate than we did any sort of overcounting.
Comment by Nick Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 5:05 pm
“Whose gonna break the news to Terry Martin?”
LOLOLOL Don’t worry - Terry will just facts aren’t facts or make up his own facts which he does everyday.
Comment by New Day Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 5:15 pm
BTW, fast forward 20 years from now when industry starts moving out of the SouthWest because they can’t get water for their factories and you’ll see our population and our jobs surge again. We can’t fix our crappy weather but our water is in great abundance.
Comment by New Day Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 5:17 pm
New Day - your remark about abundant water is only true for those areas using Lake Michigan water. There are many areas which are running out of well water.
I would wager that the business migration out of the SW will be sooner than 20 years. The Colorado River is drying up.
Comment by Huh? Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 6:22 pm
=There are many areas which are running out of well water.=
Like where? Not saying it isn’t happening at all, but water access in the state is excellent.
===The GOP can’t spin this and say people are leaving IL in droves.==
Sure they can.=
City Zen is right, just ask Darren Bailey and Mary Miller. They lie about a landslide election victory every day. So do lots of other ILGOP members.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 6:41 pm
== We can’t fix our crappy weather ==
No, but global warming will.
Comment by TNR Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 6:43 pm
===I think you’re overestimating how much the average voter cares about statistics.===
Maybe, but Pritzker can genuinely claim he is turning Illinois around. Plus, now he has proof that Illinois lost population during the last Republican administration, and gained population during his administration, also claiming Illinois is growing again.
Comment by Fivegreenleaves Thursday, May 19, 22 @ 7:46 pm