I've been growing through the Census data that came out yesterday, and the final figure of 308,745,538 was surprisingly low considering the '09 estimate was 307,006,550. 1.7 million new Americans in 9 months works out to an annual growth rate of just 2.26 million. (The Census is as of April 1, annual population estimates July 1)
The very slow 09-10 growth wasn't just from the recession, but was the result of some downward revisions. Georgia, for example, had 9.829 million in the '09 estimate, but just 9.687 million in the official '10 count. It trailed Michigan by 140,000 in '09 for 8th largest, but that gap grew to 204,000 in the final Census count. So while I thought for sure Michigan would drop to 9th this year, but it now looks like that will happen in '12 or '13. Georgia also had a 449,000 person lead on North Carolina, which is #10 in population, in 2009, but came out ahead by just 152,000 in the final '10 count. Not sure what was going on with the Georgia population estimates over the last 10 years, but the state still gained a Congressional seat even with the surprisingly low final total it posted for 2010.
