Minnesota is growing, but House delegation may shrink

The Land of 10,000 Lakes make soon have a solution to lake pressure. According to new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota is growing, but not fast enough. Since the 2000 census, in fact, the state is believed to have gained just over 300,000 new residents, moving from 4.9 million to 5.2 million.

If the trend continues unabated into the 2010 census, that could mean the loss of one U.S. House seat from the Minnesota delegation; currently, Minnesota boasts eight U.S. Representatives, but that number could retreat back to seven in the next census. Although Minnesota’s population base is growing, it is not growing fast enough to keep pace with the highest-growth states, such as California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina, all of which have grown by 1 million or more.

Louisiana and North Dakota were named as the only states to shrink since 2000; North Dakota’s losses are minor, but Louisiana’s losses numbered nearly 60,000, most of the population shift attributable to the migration following Hurricane Katrina.

Time will tell if Minnesota’s growth is too slow to keep their current Congressional delegation; in the meantime, we need to call back all our snowbirds from their Las Vegas hotel before the counting begins in earnest.