Such data is required by Federal law to be used in drawing new political districts.
Within its requirements, new districts may be drawn in several different ways.
Each county is divided into three districts drawn based on equal population.
For most of its history, the state used an unusual county unit system by which districts were drawn such that each had the same area.
The new districts are being drawn to reflect population changes reported in the 2000 census.
Because of the way political districts are drawn, they have unusual influence in the parliament.
The commission to draw new Congressional districts has not been selected yet.
Congress has, however, required the States to conform to certain practices when drawing districts.
The court held that race could not be the predominant factor in how a state drew political districts.
The 10 districts and four regions would be drawn later, using figures from the 1990 census.