Who gets the next seat when populations do not divide neatly?
Representation has to use whole seats even when population shares are fractional. The US equal-proportions method starts with one seat per state and uses priority values to allocate additional seats. Each next-seat value depends on population and the prospective seat count, turning a division problem into a ranking process.
Questions you could explore
- Why does receiving a seat change a state’s priority for a further one?
Start reading
- US Census BureauComputing Apportionment
The US Census Bureau explains the method and its geometric-mean priority formula.
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