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What law sets the minimum population requirement for an American state?

Question #126414. Asked by nautilator.
Last updated May 26 2021.
Originally posted Jul 15 2012 3:50 PM.

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eyhung star
Answer has 5 votes
Currently Best Answer
eyhung star
17 year member
121 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
The Northwest Ordinance, which requires a minimum of 60000 people to form a state.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Ordinance

"Admission of new states
The most significant intended purpose of this legislation was its mandate for the creation of new states from the region, once a population of 60,000 had been achieved within a particular territory."

Jul 15 2012, 4:19 PM
stardust587
Answer has 5 votes
stardust587

Answer has 5 votes.
I believe that The Northwest Ordinance applied only to the states that would be formed out of the Northwest territory. It stated that states would be formed "So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants of full age in the district,"
link http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nworder.asp

In the late 1850s, when Congress resubmitted the Lecompton Constitution to Kansas voters, Congress stipulated that if the voters rejected it, Kansas would have to wait until its population reached 93,420 before admission.
teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=102 no longer exists
link https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/lecompton-constitution

While neither of these pieces of information directly answers your question, they seem to indicate that population requirements may have varied from territory to territory and that there is/was not one single law covering every single state.


Response last updated by gtho4 on May 26 2021.
Jul 15 2012, 8:57 PM
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