Apportionment
The fundamental reason for conducting the decennial census of the United States is to determine the number of members of the House of Representatives each of the 50 states is entitled to have.
Apportionment is based on the size of the resident population for each state as well as the overseas population allocated to their home state. The overseas population is defined as those in the military and federal civilian employees (and their dependents). It does not include missionaries or overseas workers for a multi-national company.
Utah has a significant overseas population (of missionaries) that is not enumerated or considered for apportionment purposes. If it were, Utah would gain an additional seat and North Carolina would lose its 13th seat.
Our Apportionment Adjustment Table allows one to adjust apportionment populations and see what happens to the apportionment counts. The apportionment population for 2000 is shown for each state. You can adjust the population for one, two, or all states and have new apportionment counts selected. Try it out!
[ NOTE: Apportionment Tools Temporarily Unavailable ]
There are also some example calculations below for the following scenarios:
[Estimated population by State for April 1, 2000]
[Use only resident population from the census, exclude overseas population]
Utah argued their case in court and lost the decision. The full text of the argument and decision is here. Utah is now arguing that the use of imputation is illegal .
Legal challenges to Census 2000 continue with two Texas counties filing a lawsuit challenging the accuracy of their population counts from Census 2000.
In the past, there have been decisions about the use of statistical sampling, Department Of Commerce v. United States House (98-404), the use of unadjusted figures, Wisconsin v. City of New York et al. (94-1614), 517 U.S. 1 (1996), the apportionment formula, United States Dep't of Commerce v. Montana (91-860), 503 U.S. 442 (1992), and including the overseas population in the apportionment population, Franklin v. Massassachusetts. (91-1502), 505 U.S. 788 (1992).
The following links offer more information on the apportionment process:
Census Bureau: Congressional Apportionment.
Reporting Census 2000: A Guide for Journalists: Reapportionment.
Questions and Answers on Apportionment, Washington Post
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