Written on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 11:08am by Alan Bedenko | 6 Comments

NY-41

Today, New York has 29 Congressional districts.

In the 1960s, New York had 41 Congressional districts.

The loss of a congressional district is approximately equal to the loss of 600,000. That’s as if the entire population of the five boroughs had departed the state in the past 38 years.

Tagged with: , , ,

6 Comments

  1. Jessica says:
    January 17, 2008 at 11:13 am

    That’s not accurate. A Congressional seat may currently be equal to about 600,000 people, but it wasn’t in the 60s. The size of Congress has stayed the same while the population has grown.

    The 2006 New York population estimate from the census bureau is 19.3 million. In 1960, there were 16.7 million in NYS. We have grown more slowly than the national average, but we have not lost residents.

  2. Jacob says:
    January 17, 2008 at 11:20 am

    At the next redistricting NYS will lose even more seats.

  3. Eisenbart says:
    January 17, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    Downstate is flat lining when in comes to its population while upstate has lost a lot with Erie County being the biggest loser.

  4. Stephen Nazwisko says:
    January 17, 2008 at 3:24 pm

    Erie County’s population in 1960 was 1,060,567. (http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/41983291.pdf)

    In 2000 it was 950,265. (cite html is massive and I don’t know how to shorten link to a word, so clink my name instead)

    So a Loss of 10% in 40 years makes Erie County “a big loser”? That’s “losing a lot”? Try again.

  5. Peter Farrell says:
    January 17, 2008 at 4:20 pm

    Steve,

    US Population:

    1960: 179,323,175
    2000: 281,421,906

    a 56% increase nationwide compared to a 10% decrease locally would definitely qualify Erie County as a big loser.

  6. Eisenbart says:
    January 17, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/36029.html

    I guess other less populated upstate counties have lost similar percents but Erie County lost about an estimated 29,000 people from 2000 to 2006. It’s not doomsday but it’s something that shouldn’t be ignored.

 

You need to log in to vote

The blog owner requires users to be logged in to be able to vote for this post.

Alternatively, if you do not have an account yet you can create one here.

Powered by Vote It Up