And those 60 senators representing the 30 least populous states are there to represent 24.13% of the U.S. population. Another quotable result: a little over two thirds of the senate seats represent states which together comprise about a third of the population.
Source/methodology: I looked at 2013 estimate population data
here, and assumed one more than 50% of the vote is necessary to win any given senate seat. Here are more data. States with two Republican senators are bolded, states with two Democrat senators are italicized, and states with one of each are un-emphasized. States where Nate Silver
expects the party to change hands this fall are stricken through and marked with a bold R if a republican is expected to gain a seat and an italicized D if a Democrat or Independent is expected to gain a seat.
| Least populous states through | Senate Seats | Cumulative Population | Percentage of U.S. Population | Percentage of U.S. Population needed to win those senate seats |
|---|
| Wyoming | 2 | 582658 | 0.184310296347% | 0.0921551481736% |
| Vermont | 4 | 1209288 | 0.382530111402% | 0.191265055701% |
| North Dakota | 6 | 1932681 | 0.61135864925% | 0.305679482788% |
Alaska R | 8 | 2667813 | 0.843900546511% | 0.421950431419% |
South Dakota R | 10 | 3512690 | 1.1111577201% | 0.555579176375% |
| Delaware | 12 | 4438439 | 1.4039968685% | 0.701998908742% |
Montana R | 14 | 5453604 | 1.72512068727% | 0.862560976286% |
| Rhode Island | 16 | 6505115 | 2.05774171714% | 1.02887164938% |
New Hampshire R | 18 | 7828574 | 2.47638716694% | 1.23819453245% |
| Maine | 20 | 9156876 | 2.89656458707% | 1.44828324252% |
| Hawaii | 22 | 10560930 | 3.3407043892% | 1.67035314358% |
| Idaho | 24 | 12173066 | 3.85066608871% | 1.92533399333% |
West Virginia R | 26 | 14027370 | 4.43723199831% | 2.21861694814% |
| Nebraska | 28 | 15895886 | 5.02829354332% | 2.51414772064% |
| New Mexico | 30 | 17981173 | 5.68792554861% | 2.84396388145% |
| Nevada | 32 | 20771309 | 6.57052012898% | 3.28526117163% |
Kansas D | 34 | 23665266 | 7.48595606616% | 3.74297929839% |
| Utah | 36 | 26566138 | 8.40357940264% | 4.20179096663% |
Arkansas R | 38 | 29525511 | 9.3397081688% | 4.66985550787% |
| Mississippi | 40 | 32516718 | 10.2859068799% | 5.14295502158% |
Iowa R | 42 | 35607134 | 11.2634880489% | 5.6317456061% |
| Connecticut | 44 | 39203214 | 12.4010242545% | 6.20051370891% |
| Oklahoma | 46 | 43053782 | 13.6190618155% | 6.80953248938% |
| Oregon | 48 | 46983847 | 14.862246402% | 7.4311249408% |
| Kentucky | 50 | 51379142 | 16.2525956703% | 8.12629973313% |
Louisiana R | 52 | 56004612 | 17.7157554424% | 8.85787961914% |
| South Carolina | 54 | 60779451 | 19.2261646208% | 9.61308436653% |
| Alabama | 56 | 65613173 | 20.7552000658% | 10.377602089% |
Colorado R | 58 | 70881540 | 22.4217253396% | 11.2108648841% |
| Minnesota | 60 | 76301920 | 24.1363363878% | 12.0681704082% |
| Wisconsin | 62 | 82044633 | 25.9529099779% | 12.9764573614% |
| Maryland | 64 | 87973447 | 27.8283522877% | 13.9141785163% |
| Missouri | 66 | 94017618 | 29.7402850994% | 14.8701450803% |
| Tennessee | 68 | 100513596 | 31.7951365393% | 15.8975708002% |
| Indiana | 70 | 107084498 | 33.8736884426% | 16.9368467519% |
| Arizona | 72 | 113711122 | 35.9698667036% | 17.9849358824% |
| Massachusetts | 74 | 120403946 | 38.0869857938% | 19.0434954275% |
| Washington | 76 | 127375352 | 40.2922278154% | 20.1461164383% |
| Virginia | 78 | 135635757 | 42.9052146679% | 21.4526100227% |
| New Jersey | 80 | 144535096 | 45.7203134194% | 22.8601595567% |
| North Carolina | 82 | 154383156 | 48.8355179769% | 24.4177618354% |
| Michigan | 84 | 164278778 | 51.965767666% | 25.9828866799% |
| Georgia | 86 | 174270945 | 55.1265571187% | 27.5632815645% |
| Ohio | 88 | 185841753 | 58.7867129073% | 29.3933594587% |
| Pennsylvania | 90 | 198615554 | 62.8274075305% | 31.4137069285% |
| Illinois | 92 | 211497689 | 66.9023710931% | 33.451188868% |
| Florida | 94 | 231050549 | 73.0874632415% | 36.5437349422% |
| New York | 96 | 250701676 | 79.3036398682% | 39.6518234137% |
| Texas | 98 | 277149869 | 87.6699101154% | 43.8349586954% |
| California | 100 | 315482390 | 99.7955109056% | 49.8977592487% |
Example of how to read this table: The row labeled "Minnesota" is looking at all states as or less populous than Minnesota. So, 76,301,920 people live in one of the states in or above that row. This constitutes 24.13% of the U.S. population. Summing 50% plus 1 of each of the state populations in each state as or less populous than Minnesota means that 12.06% of the U.S. population would have needed to vote for whatever candidate won the senate elections in all of those states. In other words, this is the minimum proportion of the U.S. population that must have voted for the 60 senators representing those 30 states.
Just in case anybody still thought the U.S. was a democracy.
