Will Colorado get an eighth congressional seat?

Could Colorado be in line for an eighth congressional district?

That’s the scenario put out recently by the University of North Carolina, in an analysis of the realignment of the nation’s 435 congressional seats.

According to UNC’s Carolina Population Center, states in the South and West are likely to pick up seats after the 2020 census. States in the Midwest and Northeast are just as likely to lose them.

The UNC report based its prediction that there will be a new Colorado congressional district on the state’s population increase between 2010 and 2014, when the state grew by more than 328,000 residents.

More than 183,000 people moved to Colorado in that four-year period. The rest of the population growth is attributed to the birth and death rate.

Colorado’s population has boomed in the last 45 years. According to the state demographer, the state was home to a few more than 2 million in 1970. At that time, Colorado had five congressional seats.

Ten years later, the sixth seat was added when the state’s population neared 3 million. The seventh seat was added after the 2000 census when the state had well over 4 million. As of 2014, Colorado’s population was just shy of 6 million.

 

Photo credit: Photo credit: Larry Johnson, Creative Commons, Flickr

has been a political journalist since 1998. She covered the state capitol for the Silver & Gold Record from 1998 to 2009 and for The Colorado Statesman in 2010-11 and 2013-14. Since 2010 she also has covered the General Assembly for newspapers in northeastern Colorado. She was recognized with awards from the Colorado Press Association for feature writing and informational graphics for her work with the Statesman in 2012.

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