New Jersey lost one of its 13 seats in the House of Representatives because the state’s population growth did not keep up with booming growth in the Southeast and West, according to the 2010 population count the U.S. Census Bureau released this morning.

The Census Bureau reported New Jersey grew 4.5 percent to 8,791,894. But that paled in comparison to Nevada’s 35.1 percent and Texas’ 20.6 percent growth. The biggest decliners were Michigan, -0.6 percent, and Puerto Rico, 2.2 percent.

In addition to New Jersey, nine other states lost a House seat: New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Michigan and Ohio.

Texas gained 4 seats. Other gainers include Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.

New Jersey lost a House seat in both the 1980 and 1990 reapportionment. Its federal delegation was stable in 1970 and 2000.

The reduction in the Congressional delegation takes place in 2012, the next Federal election.

New Jersey continues to be the densest state in the country, as it has been for the past 40 years.

The resident population of the United States is 308,745,538, according to Robert Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

That’s a growth of 9.7 percent over the 2000 population of 281,421,906.

California (37,253,956) and Texas (25,145,561) had the largest state populations. New York was third with 19,378,102. Pennsylvania was sixth with 12,702,379.

Wyoming (563,626) was the smallest state. Washington D.C.(601,723) was larger. Vermont (625,741) was the next smallest state.

The last state to hang on to a House seat was Minnesota. North Carolina just missed that seat by about 15,700 people, the closest in decades, Groves said.

The 2010 census, the country's 23rd, included 10 questions about each household resident’s age, race and gender. More detailed counts for town and block population will be released in February and March 2011.

Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution requires the government to count U.S. residents every 10 years and deliver the results to the President by the end of the census year.

Congress gave the Census Bureau $7.4 billion in 2010 for the census. The count came in $1.87 billion under budget for that year.

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Previous coverage:

• U.S. Census Bureau to unveil N.J. population figures, U.S. House seat numbers today

• N.J. could lose seat in U.S. House when Census data is released, prompting fierce redistricting battle

• Community Survey results paint N.J. as wealthy, heavily populated with immigrants

• Sussex, Warren county residents commute more than 1 hour roundtrip, U.S. Census Bureau survey estimates

• N.J. is home to three of 19 counties nationally with poverty rate below 5 percent, survey reveals

• U.S. Census Bureau to publish detailed demographic snapshot of Americambers today