HOUSTON (AP) _ Houston is one of several U.S. cities planning to file appeals arguing their 2010 census counts are too low.
Census figures released earlier this year showed that during the past decade, Houston’s population grew by 7.4 percent to 2.09 million.
Janice Evans, a spokeswoman for Houston Mayor Annise Parker, says the city is preparing to formally challenge the count. She declined to comment on details of the challenge because it has not been finalized.
Cities have two years to contest their counts under the appeals process, which began this month.
In March, Houston added two new city council seats, even though the 2010 count showed it fell 549 short of the population required to do so.
It remains the fourth-largest U.S. city, behind Chicago, which has 2.7 million residents.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)