Is half of the Senate elected by 18% of the population?
The structure of the U.S. Senate, with two members from each of 50 states, ensures that each state has an equal voice. The 52 Senators elected by the least-populous 26 states represent 58 million people, or about 18% of the U.S. population.
The Constitution's framers intended the disparity to protect states' rights and minority views, balancing the population-based allocation of seats in the lower house. In 1790, in a nation of 16 states, half the 32 Senators represented about 20% of the population. Virginia was 12 times more populous than Delaware, then the smallest state. Today, with much more widely varying rates of urbanization and density across the fifty states, the largest state, California, is 68 times more populous than the smallest, Wyoming.
