ITHACA -- The U.S. Census bureau is expected to release some new figures about New York State's population later today. An expert at Cornell University says the report will likely show the state continues to lose young families, while those remaining behind are getting older.
Joe Francis, director of the Program on Applied Demographics and professor of Development Sociology at Cornell says while downstate is growing, upstate is not. “We expect Long Island, New York City, and the Mid-Hudson regions to show stronger growth, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 percent. We anticipate the Capital district to show growth in the 3 percent range. On the other hand, we anticipate the North Country, Central and Finger Lakes regions to be essentially flat. At the other extreme, we expect the Mohawk Valley, and the Southern Tier to decline by 1 to 2 percent, and the Western New York region to continue its decline with a decrease in the 4 percent range.”
The 2010 numbers will be used to guide officials drawing New York's congressional and state legislative districts for the next decade. New York's current 29-member House delegation will drop to 27, its lowest level since 1823.
The U.S. Census Bureau in December reported that the state's population grew slightly in the past decade to 19.4 million.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
