49.5 Percent in US Will Live in Eight States by 2040

July 23, 2018: Census Bureau data projects that 49.5 percent of the total U.S. population will live in just eight states by 2040: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, and North Carolina.[1]

Going a bit further, 69 percent of the population will live in the 16 largest states. Some pundits have expressed concern that these states will be underrepresented in the U.S. Senate.[2]

As I noted in a recent column, this would be problematic if America was supposed to be a pure democracy. However, our nation was founded on a belief in freedom as well as democracy. The architects of our Constitution recognized that one of the greatest threats to individual freedom would be a tyranny of the majority. Allowing 51 percent of voters to set rules for the other 49 percent to live by would be a recipe for disaster, not democracy.

Without the Senate, tyrannical majorities in coastal America could completely ignore the concerns of those who live in the middle of the country. They could pass laws that make sense in New York and California but are completely inappropriate in Missouri or Wisconsin. The Senate protects against such an outcome.

It’s important to note that this does not give the smaller states the ability to ignore the wishes of the coastal states. Those larger states have plenty of power in the House. In practical terms, as The Washington Post notes, "The House and the Senate will be weighted to two largely different Americas." For the federal government to work, the two Americas need to recognize each others’ concerns and find ways to address them." [3]

Below is a table with projected state populations by the year 2040 produced by the University of Virginia's Demographics Research Group:[1]

Footnotes:

1. Demographics Research Group, "National Population Projections," accessed July 20, 2018
2. Washington Post, "In about 20 years, half the population will live in eight states," July 12, 2018
3. ScottRasmussen.com, "The Senate Protects our Freedoms," July 19, 2018

Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology. Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.

Scott Rasmussen is founder and president of the Rasmussen Media Group. He is the author of "Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System," "In Search of Self-Governance," and "The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt." Read more reports from Scott Rasmussen — Click Here Now.