Baltimore's challenge challenge to the 2010 Census count netted the city a small population bump.
Instead of being home to 620,961 people on April 1, 2010, as the U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2011, Baltimore actually had 621,074 residents — an increase of 113 people, federal records show.
That's a far smaller increase than Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other Baltimore officials had hoped for. The city's planning department argued in its appeal that census workers did not count 15,635 housing units in Baltimore.
If that were the case, the department said, the city's population would have held steady since 2000, not lost 30,000 people.
The city stood to gain $87 million more in federal funding if the official count remained at around 650,000, city planning officials said. Over 10 years, a city resident on average is worth about $2,900 in federal funds for entitlement programs, such as foster care and health care, Baltimore Planning Director Tom Stosur said last year.
It's unusual for municipalities to see significant increases to their Census counts after filing such challenges. After the 2000 Census, challenges led to a net gain of a measly 2,700 people nationwide.
The leaders of more than 200 communities filed challenges to the 2010 count. Allegany County, College Park, Kensington and Takoma Park were the only other Maryland jurisdictions to appeal their 2010 numbers.
As with all revisions stemming from a municipal challenge, Baltimore's amended count will not be used for legislative redistricting. Government offices, however, can use the new count "for future program requiring official 2010 Census data," according to the Census Bureau.