Enumerating residents within certain geographical areas has been
a practice followed by many governments stretching back more
than 2,500 years. Often, the purpose of such censuses has been
related to collecting taxes, but there are also other, more
beneficial reasons for counting noses. A major purpose of the US
Census is to determine the number of congressional districts or
members of the 435-seat House of Representatives to be awarded
to each state. The data is also used to decide on the
appropriate distribution of federal government revenues to the
various federal, state, and local governments—much of which is
allocated by population totals or some other measure that is
derived from the census. Based on population growth rates from
2000 to 2009, the Census Bureau estimates that eight states
stand to gain representatives and 10 states will probably lose
them—beginning with the 2012 elections. The biggest gainer will
likely be Texas, and Ohio is expected to suffer the largest
loss. Also affected by the popul