Wyoming Rule

The Wyoming Rule is a proposal to increase the size of the United States House of Representatives so that the standard representative-to-population ratio would be that of the smallest entitled unit, which is currently the State of Wyoming.[1] Under Article One of the United States Constitution, each state is guaranteed at least one representative. If the disparity between the population of the most and least populous states continues to grow, the disproportionality of the U.S. House of Representatives will continue to increase unless the body, whose size has been fixed at 435 since 1929, except for a brief period from 1959 to 1963, is expanded.

A total of 569 seats would have been required to implement the Wyoming Rule based on the 2000 United States Census results.[2] However, the decade leading up to the 2010 United States Census saw Wyoming's population increase at a greater rate than that of the rest of the United States; as a result, the required House size to implement the Wyoming Rule was reduced to 547. Under the Wyoming Rule, California would gain the most seats with thirteen more members than it currently has.

While a larger House size will generally result in the smallest and largest districts being proportionally closer in size, this is not always the case. Therefore, in some cases, the Wyoming Rule may actually result in an increase in the ratio of the sizes of the largest and smallest districts. After the 1990 United States Census and with a House size of 435, the largest district (Montana's at-large congressional district) had 799,065 residents, 76.1654% larger than the smallest district (Wyoming's at-large congressional district) with 453,588 residents. The Wyoming Rule would have given a House size of 545 in 1990 if the former method of seat apportionment been used. With that size, the largest district (North Dakota's at-large congressional district) would have had 638,800 residents, 91.7835% larger than the smallest districts (Delaware's two districts), at approximately 333,084 residents each.

The current size of the House was set by Reapportionment Act of 1929. This law would need to be repealed and replaced in order to change the number of congressional members, which would require a majority of both houses of Congress to approve it.

From a constitutional standpoint, the only restriction on House size is a limit of one representative per thirty thousand people. Therefore, the Wyoming Rule would be constitutional as long as the least populous state had a population of at least 30,000.

Under the 2010 U.S. Census

The chart set out below identifies the number of House members that would be given to the respective states if the Wyoming Rule were to be implemented using the population numbers from the 2010 United States Census.

South Dakota with its two seats and an average of 407,090 people per seat would have the most seats per capita. Alaska's lone seat (710,231 people per seat) would have the fewest seats per capita. This gives a ratio of 1 to 1.74465 between greatest and smallest number of persons per seat. By comparison, it would be 1 to 1.88000 for the current lone seat of Montana (989,415 per seat) and Rhode Island's two seats (526,284 per seat).

States just short of getting an extra vote in the House include Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, and Maine, which all have more than 650,000 people per representative. At the other end of the scale, states like South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, and New Mexico just manage to secure an extra seat in Congress, each having below 515,000 people per representative.

StateSeats
(2010)		Seats
(Wyoming
Rule)		Pop. per seatSeat changeNotes
Alabama79531,082+2
Alaska11710,2310Highest population per seat.
Arizona911581,092+2
Arkansas45583,184+1
California5366564,454+13Largest gain in seats.
Colorado79558,800+2
Connecticut56595,683+1
Delaware12448,967+1Smallest state to gain seats.
Florida2733569,737+6
Georgia1417569,862+3
Hawaii22680,1510
Idaho23522,527+1
Illinois1823557,854+5
Indiana912540,317+3
Iowa45609,271+1
Kansas45570,624+1
Kentucky68542,421+2
Louisiana68566,672+2
Maine22664,1810
Maryland810577,355+2
Massachusetts912545,636+3
Michigan1418549,091+4
Minnesota89589,325+1
Mississippi45593,459+1
Missouri811544,448+3
Montana12494,708+1
Nebraska33608,7800
Nevada45540,110+1
New Hampshire22658,2350
New Jersey1216549,493+4
New Mexico34514,795+1
New York2734569,944+7
North Carolina1317560,911+4
North Dakota11672,5910
Ohio1620576,825+4
Oklahoma57535,907+2
Oregon57547,296+2
Pennsylvania1823552,277+5
Rhode Island22526,2840
South Carolina78578,171+1
South Dakota12407,090+1Lowest population per seat.
Tennessee911576,919+2
Texas3645558,790+9
Utah45552,777+1
Vermont11608,8270
Virginia1114571,501+3
Washington1012560,378+2
West Virginia33617,6650
Wisconsin810568,699+2Closest to average
population-to-representative ratio.
Wyoming11563,6260
Total435547+112

Historical House sizes

The following table describes how the House of Representatives would have looked historically, had the Wyoming Rule been adopted as part of the Reapportionment Act of 1929, instead of fixing the size at 435 representatives.

Census, YearSize ALAKAZARCACOCTDEFLGA HIIDILINIAKSKYLAMEMD MAMIMNMSMOMTNENVNHNJ NMNYNCNDOHOKORPARISC SDTNTXUTVTVAWAWVWIWY
15th, 19301,343 29–52062111831632 –5843527212923918 47532822406151544 5138357732610106819 8296464271719322
16th, 19401,188 26–51863101621728 –5723123162621817 39482520345121438 512232663211090617 6265853241617292
17th, 1950936 19–5126681321721 –4542516121817615 2940191425481330 49225450141065513 4214842211513212
18th, 1960790 141686981122217 33442112101314414 2335151019361327 4742034310850411 316424218138172
19th, 1970674 111666671022315 323717981112313 193013716252324 36117235973939 213374215116151
20th, 1980562 10176597822414 22281476910310 142310612242218 34415227873028 211354113105121
21st, 1990545 9185657722814 2225126589311 132010611243217 34015124762628 211374114114111
22nd, 2000569 91105689723217 3325126589311 132010611234317 43816123772528 212425114124111
23rd, 2010547 91115669623317 2323125588210 12189511235216 43417120772328 211455114123101
Census, YearSize ALAKAZARCACOCTDEFLGA HIIDILINIAKSKYLAMEMD MAMIMNMSMOMTNENVNHNJ NMNYNCNDOHOKORPARISC SDTNTXUTVTVAWAWVWIWY

The smallest state in each census since 1930 were:

  • Nevada (censuses 1930–1950)
  • Alaska (censuses 1960–1980)
  • Wyoming (censuses 1990–2010)

See also

References
  1. Taylor, Steven L. (December 14, 2010). "Representation in the House: The Wyoming Rule". Outside the Beltway.
  2. Shugart, Matthew Søberg (July 1, 2014). "Economix: Expand the US House". Fruits and Votes.
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