by Tim Storey
The U.S. Census Bureau released data today for California making it the 27th state to receive redistricting data from the 2010 census.
California State Senator Bill Emmerson, from Senate district 37, has the most constituents of any state legislator in the country. Using the 2010 census data, Senator Emmerson's current district (before redistricting) boasts a staggering 1,215,876 people. His district is one of eight California Senate districts with more than one million people. California Senate district 37 is, in fact, larger than all current U.S. House districts, and has more people than the total population of eight states (AK, DE, MT, ND, RI, SD, VT, & WY).
There are also two Senate districts in Texas that top one million people.
It is interesting to compare Senator Emmerson's 1.2 million person constituency to a New Hampshire State House district which averages 3,291 people. NCSL has a 50-state table on the web showing the average district size in each state using the new 2010 census data.
Even Senator Emmerson's district is relatively paltry compared to the average size of an L.A. County Supervisor's district which is 1,963,721 people. According to the new census, L.A. County's population surged to 9,818,605 in 2010. The county legislature consists of five supervisors (commissioners).
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