For much of the first half of the decade, Tennessee’s booming population meant the state was in line for another U.S. House seat after the 2030 census, but not anymore.
From July 2024 to July 2025, Tennessee’s population increased by slightly less than 1%, adding just over 60,000 new residents, according to recently released population estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Estimates completed by the Census Bureau last year show that Tennessee’s population has increased by over 400,000 since the 2020 census, making it one of the fastest-growing states this decade and enough to give it another U.S. Congressional representative in 2032, the American Redistricting Project found in its annual apportionment report.
Tennessee hasn’t had more than nine House seats in over 80 years, losing its 10th district after the 1950 census.
Every 10 years, the Census Bureau counts the number of people in the United States, and those counts are used to determine how many congressional seats each state receives. States also redraw their congressional districts at the same time, as Tennessee did in 2022, when it created new, controversial district boundaries that eliminated a Democratic-held seat in Nashville and led to a map that favored Republicans 8-1.
In the past, redistricting occurred every 10 years in line with the census, but that changed in 2025, when Texas redistricted mid-cycle to add more U.S. House seats for Republicans during the 2026 midterm elections. Democratic lawmakers in California responded by launching their own redistricting effort to favor their party. Several other Republican and Democratic state legislatures are also trying redistricting efforts.
This story was originally published by the Tennessee Lookout.
