Even as Mass. population increases, state may lose congressional districts

While major cities in Massachusetts saw their populations grow over the last decade, the growth rate of the state’s population may not be enough to ensure that the Bay State would keep all 10 of its congressional districts, Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin said in a press conference on Tuesday.

Galvin said that the population of Boston had increased by 4.8 percent since 2000 from 589, 141 to 617, 594.

Spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas Menino, Dot Joyce, said the population increase was an indication that Boston continues to grow as a community and a cultural hotspot, according to an article in The Boston Globe on Tuesday.

“We are confident that our population continues to grow,” Joyce said. “Boston is a growing, vibrant city.”

While many of the major cities in the state saw population growth since 2000, the rate of growth was not enough to outpace other states, potentially forcing Massachusetts to lose one of 10 congressional districts.

Lowell, Worcester, Springfield and Cambridge are among the Massachusetts cities that saw significant population growth since 2000, according to Galvin.

Areas of the state where population decreased, including Cape Cod and Western Massachusetts, are most likely to be consolidated with other legislative districts as a result, Galvin said.

Cities whose population growth was among the highest in Massachusetts included Upton, Oak Bluffs and Grafton.

The data, taken from new U.S. Census figures released on Tuesday, also indicated that minority populations in the state had increased over the past 10 years.

Asian, Hispanic and black populations saw a 46 percent increase in Massachusetts according to the Census, with black populations accounting for 26 percent of the increase.

Conversely, the white population of the state has decreased 1.9 percent, Galvin said, although whites still comprise the majority of the state’s population.