NEW YORK—New York will have one less Congressional delegate going forward, per the latest Census Bureau information released on Monday, April 26, a result of slowed population growth since 2010. The announcement was the first batch of Census Bureau data to be released after the 2020 Census, with much more to come over the following months.

New York’s population officially sits at 20,201,469, as of April 1, 2020, which is the date when the Census Bureau asks residents to record their permanent location. That is significantly higher than what the Census Bureau had estimated the population to be, but still represents fairly slow growth over the last 10 years. The population in the state is 4.2 percent higher than it was in 2010.

Census officials, answering some questions from New York reporters, said that the state’s growth was slowed because more people were moving out than were moving in over the last decade. After prompting from Dan Clark of PBS’ New York Now, Census officials confirmed that New York was merely 89 people short of retaining its full Congressional representation and delegate count. The state will now have 26 elected officials in the House of Representatives instead of 27.

The full impact of the population count will become clearer over the next several months in terms of the ripple effects on federal aid and spending—and more directly local impacts will start to emerge as well. As noted by Ithaca Voice reporter Brian Crandall, the loss of a delegate in Congress is significant, but there was also strong indications that New York would lose two delegates instead of one. The delegate will likely be from upstate New York, and will be determined once the state legislature redraws the Congressional district maps.

Matt Butler is the Editor in Chief of The Ithaca Voice. He can be reached by email at mbutler@ithacavoice.org.