Yesterday the US Census Bureau released block-by-block data to Virginia:
Today, the Census Bureau shipped local 2010 Census data to the Virginia state leadership. After confirmation of receipt, usually within 24 hours of shipment, the Census Bureau will issue a news release with five custom tables of data for the state. At that time, the full set of data will be available simultaneously via FTP download on the Redistricting Data Office page http://www.census.gov/rdo/data. Within 24 hours after release, the data will be posted on the Census Bureau’s new American FactFinder site http://factfinder2.census.gov.
The data will include summaries of population totals, as well as data on race, Hispanic origin and voting age. These data will be presented for multiple geographies within the state, such as census blocks, tracts, voting districts, cities, counties and school districts.
Legislators and data crunchers should have a field day any time now.
Via Jim Riley at Virginia Virtucon
UPDATE: The Census now has the data for Virginia available here.
Richmond Times Dispatch reports that the City of Richmond has seen an increase in its population for the first time in 40 years.
UPDATE 2: From Del. Mark Cole, Chairman of the Privileges and Elections Committee –
Today, Virginia received from the U.S. Census Bureau the detailed data required for redistricting. The data set includes the elements required by P.L. 94-171, the federal law which governs redistricting data, including total population, population by race, population by ethnicity, and the breakdown within each group of voting-age population. The data is tabulated for each of the census blocks in Virginia and at each higher level of Census geography–census tracts, precincts, cities and counties, and legislative and congressional districts. more information about the data set is available from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Redistricting Data Office at http://www.census.gov/rdo/.
The House Privileges and Elections Committee continues its work on legislation through the end of the regular 2011 General Assembly Session, scheduled for February 26, 2011. During the same time period, the Joint Reapportionment Committee will work closely with the General Assembly’s Division of Legislative Services to refine the raw data for completeness and accuracy. The process includes loading the Census data into the geographic information systems that legislators will use to draw new districts, as required by the Virginia Constitution, and should have all required data accurately checked and in place by the end of this month at the very latest. The information also will be available to the public as soon as possible, most likely in about the next two weeks.
Upon adjournment of the regular session, the House Privileges and Elections Committee will continue to seek input from the public and begin the work of drawing new lines in anticipation of a special legislative session for redistricting. The specific dates for the 2011 Special Session on Redistricting have not yet been agreed to by the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia.
Also, read more from the Washington Examiner on Northern Virginia gaining “clout”.
“It’s simple math — it’s boring,” said Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, a member of the House redistricting committee. “But I’d rather be in my situation, being from Northern Virginia where we’ll get more seats, rather than in the south, where they’ll lose seats.”
UPDATE 3: Jim Riley is still at it over at Virginia Virtucon, breaking down the numbers:
