Taylor Lake Village leads local census participation; Webster and Kemah lag

Texas is gaining four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives as a
result of the 2010 census, and it appears that residents of the Clear
Lake area did their part to make it happen.

With a few exceptions, municipalities in the Clear Lake area recorded
participation rates equal to or exceeding those for Texas and the rest
of the nation, according to official census data.

Taylor Lake Village led the way with 84 percent of mailed census forms
returned. That's more than ten points above the national average rate
of 74 percent and even further above the Texas average of 71 percent.

The lowest participation rate in the Clear Lake area came from
Webster, where only 58 percent of census forms were successfully
mailed and received.

Here are the participation rates for all of the municipalities in the area:

Taylor Lake Village - 84
Shoreacres - 80%
Friendswood - 79%
League City - 77%
El Lago - 77%
Nassau Bay - 76%
Dickinson - 76%
Seabrook - 75%
Clear Lake Shores - 71%
Kemah - 67%
Webster - 58%

Though some areas fell below the national average, all Clear Lake
cities did better than Galveston Island, where only 55 percent of
forms were returned.

Despite below-average participation, Texas will gain four
congressional seats as a result of the census due to its rapid
population growth. The number of people in the state increased by 20.6
percent to 25,145,591. That increase is much higher than the rest of
the nation.

The population of the United States as a whole grew 9.7 percent to an
official tally of 308,745,538. It was the smallest increase in
the population by percentage since the 1940 census.

Texas's population growth was somewhat stronger; the increase was less
than that recorded in the 2000 census (22.8 percent) but greater than
the one recorded in 1990 (19.4 percent).

The South was also the nation's fastest-growing region at 14.3
percent. In general, states in the South and West are
gaining congressional seats at the expense of states in the Midwest and
Northeast. The states that will gain seats include South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Utah and Washington. The states
losing seats are Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Louisiana.