Today we announced our plan to release the first round of 2010 Census statistics on December 21, 2010 – the state population totals and their implications for the new membership of the US House of Representatives.

There are many, many of us who contributed to this moment. We were joined by hundreds of thousands of colleagues throughout the country. We jointly fought through the kinds of adversities that are always part of such a huge endeavor. We kept our eyes on the prize. We succeeded in delivering to our country the Census Bureau’s decennial gift – a full count of the population – for the 23rd time in the history of the United States.

I encourage all of you to take a moment to view and share the short video “2010 Census: The U.S. Census and the Amazing Apportionment Machine,” as well as the just released interactive map widget that enables users to view the history of apportionment and our country’s changing population through the past century. The widget will be updated when the 2010 state counts are released.

All of us, whether we had decennial duties or not, should take a moment to feel proud of this accomplishment. We are honored to work for an institution given such an important task for the country.