Memphis to challenge 2020 census population count, mayor says
The city’s population was undercounted in the U.S. census, according to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, especially Downtown. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian file)
The city was robbed in the U.S. Census, according to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.
Strickland said Friday, Aug. 19, in his weekly email that the 2020 U.S. Census count showed the city lost more than 13,000 people in the decade since the last census. However, he says the city actually gained 15,895 residents.
“The Census count was wrong,” Strickland wrote. “The gains we have seen in investments in Memphis, especially in the core city, over the last few years tell a different story.”
The Memphis-Shelby County Division of Planning and Development came up with 15,895 more Memphians than were counted after Strickland asked the division to take a second look based on the city’s boundaries and its housing count.
“We found enough evidence in both cases to challenge their findings,” Strickland said of the census bureau count.
The city’s challenge will also include data from the Census Bureau estimating statewide the count was 4.78% off in terms of an undercount.
The Census count is more than a point of pride. Population figures from the Census determine funding levels for many federal programs that include formulas based on an area’s population. The Census numbers also determine how legislative district lines are redrawn once a decade.
The Tennessee General Assembly’s redrawing of district lines for the state House and state Senate resulted in Shelby County losing one of its 14 House districts because of the decline in population.
When Strickland challenged incumbent Mayor AC Wharton in the 2015 city elections, one of the basic political tenets of his successful bid was the city’s loss of population between 1980 and 2010 with the 1980 census reflecting losses in population since 1970.
Strickland ran on a campaign of economic growth that would increase the city’s population. That was followed by a philosophy of focusing on growing the city “up instead of out” – increasing the density of housing.
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2020 Census Jim Strickland DowntownBill Dries on demand
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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