Official census for apportionment; definitions.

(1) In accordance with s. 8(a), Art. X of the State Constitution, the United States Decennial Census of 2020 is the official census of the state for the purposes of this joint resolution.

(2) The following delineation of representative and senatorial districts employs areas included within official county, tract, block group, and block boundary descriptions used by the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, in compiling the United States Decennial Census of 2020 in this state. The populations within these census geographic units are the population figures reported in the counts of the United States Decennial Census of 2020 provided to the state in accordance with Pub. L. No. 94-171.

(3) As used in this joint resolution, the term:

(a) “Block” describes the smallest geographic unit for which population was tabulated in the 2020 decennial census. Blocks are nested within tracts and within block groups. A block is identified by a three-character number that is unique within a block group.

(b) “Block equivalency file” describes a list of all blocks within the state and the representative or senatorial district number designated for each block. Blocks are listed by a 15-character number that combines the five-character county-level Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) code, the six-character tract number with leading zeros and an implied decimal, the single-character block group number, and the three-character block number.

(c) “Block group” describes a cluster of blocks within the same census tract. Block groups are nested within tracts and are uniquely identified by a single-character number with a valid range of 0 through 9.

(d) “County” describes a legal governmental subdivision of the state. Boundaries of counties described in this joint resolution reflect those boundaries in effect as of January 1, 2020.

(e) “Geographical information systems map” describes an electronic map that represents the boundaries of representative and senatorial districts in a commonly accepted and readable format.

(f) “Tract” describes a relatively permanent statistical subdivision of a county. Tracts are nested within counties and are uniquely identified by an up-to-four-character number and a two-digit suffix identified by a decimal.