The National Press Club is hosting the release of 2010 Census data right now, and as expected, states in the South and especially the West are the biggest beneficiaries, while states in the Northeast and Midwest are losing population. Eighteen states will see different apportionment as opposed to 10 years ago, while 32 states will stay the same.

The US has a population of 308,745,538, which means that each Congressional district will have over 700,000 constituents. This is a pretty good argument for increasing the size of Congress, but we couldn’t even get done representation for Washington DC and an increase of two Congressional seats this year, so don’t bet on it, at least not anytime soon.

To the topline numbers. Texas will have 4 more Congressional districts starting in 2012, and Florida will have 2 more. The following states will increase by one district: Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Arizona, Utah and Washington state.

As for the states losing seats, New York and Ohio will lose two seats. The other states losing one seat: Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Louisiana is the only of these states not in the Northeast or Midwest, and presumably Hurricane Katrina had something to do with that. Michigan was the only state that shrunk in population between 2000 and 2010.

The official Census map is available here.

States won by John McCain in 2008, then, will gain 6 Congressional districts, while states won by President Obama will lose 6. That’s slightly less than expected.

California will have 55 electoral votes, with Texas at 38. New York and Florida will each have 29. The next two highest are Pennsylvania and Illinois, with 20.

The states gaining seats in redistricting, except for Washington, have Republican governors and mostly Republican legislatures.

Obviously every state will need to redistrict to account for the population shifts inside their states, and far more states have Republican majorities in the legislature and with the Governor, and therefore the unfettered ability to control redistricting.

…Minnesota was the last in line to retain all their seats, and North Carolina was the closest to adding a seat.