Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Rich Miller

Too many eagerly accepted wildly erroneous census undercount in Illinois

The Census Bureau recently announced that it had undercounted Illinois in the 2020 decennial headcount, and the state actually grew by about 250,000 people. (Paul Sancya/AP)

Illinois peaked at 27 U.S. House seats after the 1910 Census and subsequent reapportionment. That lasted until the 1940 Census, when Illinois dropped to 26 seats.

We’ve been steadily losing ground ever since. It’s not that we lost population, it’s that other states in the West and the South grew much faster. California had just 11 congressional districts as a result of the 1910 Census. It now has 53.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.