Sunday, October 19, 2014

12% of the U.S. population controls 60% of the Senate.

submitted   by 2Xprogrammer
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 throughSenate SeatsCumulative PopulationPercentage of U.S. PopulationPercentage of U.S. Population needed to win those senate seats
Wyoming25826580.184310296347%0.0921551481736%
Vermont412092880.382530111402%0.191265055701%
North Dakota619326810.61135864925%0.305679482788%
Alaska R826678130.843900546511%0.421950431419%
South Dakota R1035126901.1111577201%0.555579176375%
Delaware1244384391.4039968685%0.701998908742%
Montana R1454536041.72512068727%0.862560976286%
Rhode Island1665051152.05774171714%1.02887164938%
New Hampshire R1878285742.47638716694%1.23819453245%
Maine2091568762.89656458707%1.44828324252%
Hawaii22105609303.3407043892%1.67035314358%
Idaho24121730663.85066608871%1.92533399333%
West Virginia R26140273704.43723199831%2.21861694814%
Nebraska28158958865.02829354332%2.51414772064%
New Mexico30179811735.68792554861%2.84396388145%
Nevada32207713096.57052012898%3.28526117163%
Kansas D34236652667.48595606616%3.74297929839%
Utah36265661388.40357940264%4.20179096663%
Arkansas R38295255119.3397081688%4.66985550787%
Mississippi403251671810.2859068799%5.14295502158%
Iowa R423560713411.2634880489%5.6317456061%
Connecticut443920321412.4010242545%6.20051370891%
Oklahoma464305378213.6190618155%6.80953248938%
Oregon484698384714.862246402%7.4311249408%
Kentucky505137914216.2525956703%8.12629973313%
Louisiana R525600461217.7157554424%8.85787961914%
South Carolina546077945119.2261646208%9.61308436653%
Alabama566561317320.7552000658%10.377602089%
Colorado R587088154022.4217253396%11.2108648841%
Minnesota607630192024.1363363878%12.0681704082%
Wisconsin628204463325.9529099779%12.9764573614%
Maryland648797344727.8283522877%13.9141785163%
Missouri669401761829.7402850994%14.8701450803%
Tennessee6810051359631.7951365393%15.8975708002%
Indiana7010708449833.8736884426%16.9368467519%
Arizona7211371112235.9698667036%17.9849358824%
Massachusetts7412040394638.0869857938%19.0434954275%
Washington7612737535240.2922278154%20.1461164383%
Virginia7813563575742.9052146679%21.4526100227%
New Jersey8014453509645.7203134194%22.8601595567%
North Carolina8215438315648.8355179769%24.4177618354%
Michigan8416427877851.965767666%25.9828866799%
Georgia8617427094555.1265571187%27.5632815645%
Ohio8818584175358.7867129073%29.3933594587%
Pennsylvania9019861555462.8274075305%31.4137069285%
Illinois9221149768966.9023710931%33.451188868%
Florida9423105054973.0874632415%36.5437349422%
New York9625070167679.3036398682%39.6518234137%
Texas9827714986987.6699101154%43.8349586954%
California10031548239099.7955109056%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.