Census Puts Counties on Notice

Now that Tennessee’s new census numbers are out, counties will soon begin preparing for changes within their borders.

Tennessee lawmakers redraw U.S. House and state legislative districts, but county commission lines are redrawn at the local level, and that affects everything from city council districts to voting precincts.

The county-by-county population figures from the census won’t be available for months. Tom Fleming directs the state’s office of Local Government, which distributes the census numbers to counties.

“The information put out today was information as a whole, now then, it’s a matter of breaking it down by districts, by blocks, by counties, so we will know what the population is, and each county will know where to start.”

Census officials have until April 1, 2011, to give Tennessee its county-by-county population totals.