On August 12, the Census announced that Chester County’s 2020 population was 534, 515 persons, which is a 7.1% increase from 2010, when it was 498,866. This new population figure confirms what everyone has been observing over the past few years – Chester County remains a popular and growing place, with a wide variety of housing being built around the county.
Chester County is expected to continue growing over the coming years; so, it’s critically important that local communities plan for this new development so that the county’s unique character and heritage are maintained. The county’s comprehensive plan, Landscapes3, provides guidance on how to balance growth and preservation.
Every ten years, using the new Decennial Census data, the Pennsylvania State Legislature creates new boundaries for the US house of representative, the PA senate, and the PA House of Representatives. This task is undertaken by the PA Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC), a committee of five state legislators. During July and August the LRC initiated a series of public hearings and meetings to begin the redistricting process. It is currently anticipated that the new boundaries will be determined by mid-Fall 2021. To stay up-to-date on the redistricting process, visit the commonwealth’s official “Pennsylvania Redistricting” web page.
The LRC will redraw districts based on data gathered by the 2020 Decennial Census, which has been released in stages. In April 2021, the Census Bureau released national and state level data from the 2020 enumeration. These data determined that the resident population of people living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia on April 1, 2020, was 331,449,281. The nationwide resident population increased by 22,703,743 (7.4%) from the 2010 census total which was 308,745,538. The 2020 resident population for Pennsylvania was 13,002,700. Pennsylvania’s population increased by 300,321 (2.4%) from the 2010 census total, which was 12,702,379. Despite this modest gain, Pennsylvania which has had 18 congressional seats, will lose one and thus have 17 seats.
View information on the 2020 population for all counties in the nation.
In the coming weeks, Planning Commission staff will be examining this data set to extract data that relates to Chester County.
The Census Bureau has created a web page entitled Infographics and Visualizations which includes maps and charts illustrating the 2020 census results. One of these maps is the 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer, which provides selected data about counties and census block groups nationwide. Another useful map provides 2020 State and County population and housing data. These maps are user-friendly, and can currently be used to access much of the census 2020 data which will be posted as a complete data set on September 30, 2021.