The United States divided into 5 areas of roughly equal population

[Daniel Fiddler]

30 pixel diameter circles = metropolitan areas 2,000,000 - 4,999,999 (23 in total)
40 pixel diameter circles = metropolitan areas 5,000,000 - 9,999,999 (10 in total)
50 pixel diameter circles = metropolitan areas 10 million and over (2 in total)

[Max Rockatansky]

And?

[Daniel Fiddler]

I just thought I would share that, I find that interesting.

[gonealookin]

The issue I have with it is that Red gets 32% of the U.S. Senate membership...and of those, 28 are Republicans and 4 are Democrats.  Merge some of those states together.

Orange is the other one that is over-represented in the Senate, slightly, at 24% (4 Republicans, 18 Democrats, 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats).

[GaryV]

The issue I have with it is that Red gets 32% of the U.S. Senate membership...and of those, 28 are Republicans and 4 are Democrats.  Merge some of those states together.

Orange is the other one that is over-represented in the Senate, slightly, at 24% (4 Republicans, 18 Democrats, 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats).

Says the person from a state that has 2% of the US Senators, but slightly less than 1% of the US population.

Hint: That's the way the system was designed by the original framers of the Constitution.

[SEWIGuy]

The issue I have with it is that Red gets 32% of the U.S. Senate membership...and of those, 28 are Republicans and 4 are Democrats.  Merge some of those states together.

Orange is the other one that is over-represented in the Senate, slightly, at 24% (4 Republicans, 18 Democrats, 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats).

Says the person from a state that has 2% of the US Senators, but slightly less than 1% of the US population.

Hint: That's the way the system was designed by the original framers of the Constitution.

In retrospect, a terrible idea.

[SEWIGuy]

30 pixel diameter circles = metropolitan areas 2,000,000 - 4,999,999 (23 in total)
40 pixel diameter circles = metropolitan areas 5,000,000 - 9,999,999 (10 in total)
50 pixel diameter circles = metropolitan areas 10 million and over (2 in total)

The Indianapolis metropolitan area is geographically very large.

[formulanone]

Greetings from Alakandaho, the Big America Land.

U.S. Route 37 from Mobile to Coeur d'Alene, I think this is needed.

[vdeane]

Hint: That's the way the system was designed by the original framers of the Constitution.

Hint: there is a reason why it's unconstitutional for states to replicate that system for their own Senates.  Especially since nearly all political battles these days are urban vs. rural or blue collar vs. white collar, not big state vs. small state.  Even before the modern divides, it was slave state vs. free state, so in retrospect, big state vs. small state feels more like an unfounded fear than anything that was ever actually real (although the Senate did at least prove useful for balancing power between slave and free, but it ending up that way was largely a happy coincidence for a while and eventually broke down, resulting in the Civil War, so that was really more postponing the inevitable and possibly making it worse rather than keeping the peace).

[gonealookin]

The issue I have with it is that Red gets 32% of the U.S. Senate membership...and of those, 28 are Republicans and 4 are Democrats.  Merge some of those states together.

Orange is the other one that is over-represented in the Senate, slightly, at 24% (4 Republicans, 18 Democrats, 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats).

Says the person from a state that has 2% of the US Senators, but slightly less than 1% of the US population.

Hint: That's the way the system was designed by the original framers of the Constitution.

I don't mind that all states don't have exactly the same population.  And people obviously move around over time.

As you allude to, Nevada is relatively small at #32 in population as of the 2020 Census.  At this time I think around 3 million population should be the minimum for a state, and Nevada just squeezes in there at 3.104M.  Kansas, #35 at 2.937M, is the smallest state that fits under my criteria.  There's a pretty big dropoff after Kansas to the 15 smallest states; #36 New Mexico is 2.117M, and 6 states don't even crack 1 million so they have less than 0.3% of the population but still get two Senators.

If you wanted to say 5M is minimum population for a state, I could see merging #32 Nevada and #30 Utah into a single state that would have 6.375M, which would be proportional Senate representation.  Those are two of the faster-growing states, though.  The constitutional convention to resolve the differences in state laws between Utah and Nevada would be entertaining.

A few obvious mergers that need to happen:

North Dakota (#47), South Dakota (#46) and Nebraska (#37):  This single state would have 3.626M, moving it into 30th place behind Connecticut.

Maine (#42), New Hampshire (#41) and Vermont (#49):  3.382M, becomes #31 behind Utah.

Idaho (#38), Montana (#44) and Wyoming (#50):  3.499M, also behind Connecticut.

A few other things like merging Rhode Island into Connecticut, Delaware into Maryland, splitting up West Virginia and New Mexico among their surrounding states.  Possibly demote Alaska and Hawaii (ahem, Puerto Rico has more people than Alaska and Hawaii combined).  I could get it down to something like 38 states.

And while we're at it, could we please shift the City of Carter Lake from Iowa to Nebraska. 

[ZLoth]

This might be better...

[ZLoth]

[kphoger]

This was a fun exercise.

Ten regions, using 2024 population estimates:

[formulanone]

This was a fun exercise.

Ten regions, using 2024 population estimates:

Georgida loses Alabama to Kentissouriana to balance out the population.

Either that, or Illinichigan and Kentissouriana should get draft picks to balance things out. You know one of them is picking Hawaii and/or Vermont in the first round, forget about cultural differences in this fantasy nation.

I think I'm just having fun making up conglomerate state names.

[kphoger]

Illinichigan

I think I'm just having fun making up conglomerate state names.

Illianagan?

[Daniel Fiddler]

This was a fun exercise.

Ten regions, using 2024 population estimates:

That is a nice map, although that one is not quite as evenly divided as my map is, even if my map is fewer regions.

Realistically, the fewest number of regions that the US can be divided into might be eight due to California's large population (nearly 40 million) and Hawaii being closest to California.

[hotdogPi]

11, needs a serious update


12, also needs a serious update

[Scott5114]

Illinichigan

I think I'm just having fun making up conglomerate state names.

Illianagan?

Washorevadahontanomingtahawalazona.

[kkt]

The issue I have with it is that Red gets 32% of the U.S. Senate membership...and of those, 28 are Republicans and 4 are Democrats.  Merge some of those states together.

Orange is the other one that is over-represented in the Senate, slightly, at 24% (4 Republicans, 18 Democrats, 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats).

Says the person from a state that has 2% of the US Senators, but slightly less than 1% of the US population.

Hint: That's the way the system was designed by the original framers of the Constitution.

It was.  That was necessary to get the Consitition ratified.  But back then there was not the extreme difference between very small population states and very large population states. 

[kphoger]

Realistically, the fewest number of regions that the US can be divided into might be eight due to California's large population (nearly 40 million) and Hawaii being closest to California.

OK, but I suspect Scott might not be happy with the results.