New states paradox

The new states paradox occurs when adding a new state to the United States of America causes another state to get more congressional representatives than it had before the new state was added. One would normally expect that, with a fixed number of total representatives, adding a new state would only reduce the number of representatives for existing states; however, because of how the particular apportionment rules deal with rounding methods, it is possible for an existing state to get more representatives.

See also: Apportionment paradox.

External links

Cut-the-knot.org