It’s official: The city of Houston really did have 2.1 million people as of the 2010 Census.
The U.S. Census Bureau has adjusted the city’s 2010 population from 2,099,451 to 2,100,263. The difference is only 812 people, but it’s enough to push the city over the 2.1 million mark, a threshold for adding City Council members.
City officials protested the count shortly after the census figures were released in February 2011. They argued that officials did not use the correct boundaries and, therefore, missed several geographical areas within the city limits. All of the housing units in those areas, except for one, are located in the northeast part of the city.
Census officials agreed after reviewing the boundaries and contacted the city last week.
See here for the background. The total difference is trivial, and we went ahead and expanded Council anyway despite some initial resistance, so this is mostly of academic interest. But still, it’s nice to get it right, and to prove once and for all that expanding Council was the correct call.