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2010 Census: Plano in top 10 cities
Ronnie Baker / Staff Photo - Plano’s Asian community constitutes about 17 percent of the city’s population, according to the latest data released from the U.S. Census Bureau.
By Jessica Rush, jrush@acnpapers.com
Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau is releasing another installment of data taken from the 2010 Census. The bureau releases information such as population figures on a state-by-state basis, and they show Plano is still the ninth largest city in Texas with a population of 259,841 people as of last April.
“It means we’re one of the larger cities in Texas and also the United States,” said Steve Sims, a senior planner with the city of Plano. “Plano’s diversity is continuing to grow.”
The data shows Plano’s Asian population is the second-largest racial group in the city behind the majority white population. Asians make up about 17 percent of the population, and those who consider themselves to have Hispanic origin constitute almost 15 percent of the city.
“For a city our size and as diverse as Plano is, we were pleased with our results,” Sims said.
Plano has added about 38,000 people in the last 10 years – a growth of 17 percent. Sims said that kind of growth is unusual for a city that has more than a quarter of a million residents.
“Generally, cities of that size grow very slowly or lose population,” he said. “What’s unusual about our city is we are a suburban city … but many places that are over 250,000 population are stand-alone cities.”
When it comes to housing information, most of Plano is occupied. The census showed 95.6 percent of Plano homes have residents living in them out of nearly 104,000 addresses.
Preparation for this decennial census began as soon as the previous one was finished. The city compared boundaries and residential addresses with the bureau’s information to help create a master list of addresses. Plano’s Census Complete Count Committee helped educate residents about the importance of the census at various events and festivals, in schools and within hard-to-count communities.
In mid-March 2010, residents began receiving the census forms that were promoted as “one of the shortest forms in history” with 10 questions expected to take about 10 minutes to fill out. Census questions included: the number of people living or staying at the residence; household tenure; a telephone number; names of residents; ages and birthdays of residents; race of residents; and additional homes.
The Census Bureau estimates that every family of four who does not fill out the census costs the city they live in around $50,000. The demographic information is used to determine where to distribute more than $400 billion in federal funds, primarily the Community Development Block Grant for residents with low-to-moderate incomes. In the 2008-09 fiscal year, the Plano Community Services Division was able to use grant money to assist 16,531 people with approximately $2.5 million.
“If we can get money from other sources to fund programs, that’s less money that we have to come up with from our budget,” Sims said. “We can then maybe provide some services that we did not even consider, because we did not have the money in our budget.”
The census data is also used to distribute the 435 seats in the House of Representatives among the 50 states. Texas has gained seats for seven consecutive decades and gained the most number of seats in Congress this year with four.
Now it will be up to the Texas Legislature to redraw boundaries, a process known as redistricting, to determine where those new seats will come from.
“There will be a lot of competition throughout the state for wherever those seats come from,” Sims said.
He predicts the larger cities such as Houston, Austin and San Antonio, along with the Dallas region, will argue the seats should come from their growing areas.
Should legislators not reach an agreement on a new map, which members of both political sides traditionally draw to favor their party, a federal court will take over the redistricting process. That is what happened in 2000 after the last census when Texas gained two seats.
The new census figures could also affect geographic boundaries on the local level. Sims said Plano’s largest council district can be no more than 25 percent greater than the smallest city council district in population.
Final census information, which breaks down population numbers in more detail, is expected to come out in May. If it shows Plano is not satisfying the city charter mandate, then city staff will have to look at redrawing boundaries to balance the population back out again. Sims said city staff would consider looking into redistricting council seats as early as this fall.
Top cities in North Central Texas, by population
Dallas – 1,316,350
Fort Worth – 736,200
Arlington – 370,650
Plano – 265,000
Garland – 229,600
Irving – 213,700
Grand Prairie – 169,350
Mesquite – 139,550
McKinney – 126,900
Carrollton – 122,100
Source: North Central Texas Council of Governments
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