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34 NEW STATES: Why Every Major U.S. City Should Be Its Own State, But Never Will Be
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Apr 2, 2025
Listen to the companion podcast episode here: https://linktr.ee/geographyiseverything Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geographybygeoff/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@geographybygeoff Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/geography-is-everything Linktree for everything: https://linktr.ee/geographybygeoff Hawaii was the last state to be admitted to the Union, all the way back in 1959. But since then the country has grown by more than 150 million Americans, the vast majority of which have migrated to the major cities of the country. Because of this, I frequently get comments that suggest that this city or that city should be broken away from its current state and/or made into its own state altogether. So I opted to make every major city with more than 2 million people in its metro area, it's own full state. Here's why it actually makes a bit of sense, but also why it'll absolutely never happen. Stock footage is acquired from www.storyblocks.com. Animation support provided by DH Designs (needahittman.com)
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Hawaii was the last state admitted to the Union all the way back in 1959, 64 years ago
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Since then, the population of the country has nearly doubled, vast amounts of Americans have moved to major cities from rural areas
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and cities such as New York City and Los Angeles have become the primary economic engines for the country
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Despite this, cities are often held hostage by the states that run them
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and frequently maligned by those that don't live in them. So what if every major city in the country was made into its own state instead
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Welcome to Geography by Jeff. Today I have an extra special episode for you. Frequently in my
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comments, I will get a lot of responses that say that this city or that city should be broken away
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from its current state or made into its own state entirely. So I figured, why stop there? Let's make
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every major U.S. city its own state. To the surprise of probably no one watching this video
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it's gonna shake up things quite a bit. But first, we're diving deep into the United States today
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so I figured, why not make a podcast all about the Great Recession, which started right here
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You can learn all about the wild geography of the Great Recession by clicking this link
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or by checking out the description below. The United States today is currently made up
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of 50 full states and a handful of territories that include places like Puerto Rico and even Washington, D.C.
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which is not technically a territory, but also not a state. Suffice it to say, the country has not felt any need to add a new state for a long time
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and this largely has to do with the politics involved. But before we figure out how all of this worked in the past
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and how it might work in the future, let's first run through what our city-states will look like
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Within the United States, the majority of people live within cities that are part of larger metropolitan regions
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Some of the metropolitan regions are huge, such as New York City with over 19 million people
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or Los Angeles with nearly 13 million. Others are pretty small, like Fargo, North Dakota's 250,000 people
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or Redding, California's 180,000. Suffice it to say, not every metropolitan region
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could be made into its own state. A line had to be drawn and, for the purpose of this video
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I chose metropolitan regions with 2 million or more people. This was typically the line
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at which a city becomes the dominant economic engine within any given state
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And because counties are typically the most official subdivision after states themselves
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I opted to use county boundaries rather than metro area boundaries to make the new states
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This means that every single new state we're making in this video is actually quite a bit larger than the actual urban area
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But that's okay. They'll want space to grow and land to manage themselves
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The original states will still have the vast majority of land, aside from a few
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In fact, with this process, one state kind of disappears entirely. Sorry, New Jersey
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All told, with these metrics, the United States would now be comprised of 84 full states
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And this shakes up the country quite a bit. California, for example, is no longer the largest state with nearly 40 million people
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Instead, it's now the eighth largest state with 7.8 million people. The two largest states in this new setup would actually be the new city of New York City and Los Angeles with nearly 20 million and 13 million people respectively The largest original state would be Texas with just over 10 million people
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On the other end of the spectrum, the smallest states get shaken up as well. Due to Providence folding into the state of Boston
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Rhode Island is now the smallest state with just 430,000 people, with Delaware right behind it with a similar population
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And, as I mentioned earlier, New Jersey kind of goes away entirely
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with all of its counties absorbed into the new states of New York City and Philadelphia
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And Ohio actually presents one of the most interesting situations. Given that Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati each have just over 2 million people in their metro regions
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all three become their own state, leading to one of the largest state fractures outside of California and Texas
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Surprisingly, the original state of Ohio would still have more than 5.2 million people
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approximately 30,000 more than its northern rival, Michigan. Of the top 10 largest states in this scenario
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Six are former cities, with New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Boston
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being home to nearly 70 million Americans, comprising an area just 45,000 square miles in size
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about the same size as the current U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and California round out the largest original states with just 35 million people
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half of the population of the top city states. This population would be spread out over a gargantuan 440,000 square miles
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nearly 10 times the size of the top six city-states. All told, the 34 new city-states would make up 170 million Americans on just 6% of all land
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The remaining 161 million Americans would live on the remaining 94% of land
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That's an incredible statistic. And none of this was without precedent either
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Germany, the largest country in Europe by population, has three cities that are their own states
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Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen. While this isn't as many as this video proposes
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each was given statehood throughout history due to unique economic characteristics that simply made more sense
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to have them act as their own entity rather than be tied to a larger governing body
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In the same way, the cities selected in this video are the economic engines of their current states
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which creates tensions. Oh boy, that was a lot, but we still have much more to get through
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including what all of this would mean for the country at large. But before we do that, if you're enjoying this video, hit that subscribe button
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More fun geography videos are just a single click away. Before we can jump into the impact of adding 34 new states to the Union
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let's first backtrack a little bit and talk about how states were formed originally
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And it all began when the United States acquired vast amounts of land that it had no idea what to do with
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And of course, the vast majority of this land was forcibly taken from thousands of tribes
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that have since been removed. In the country's early years, the U.S. government acquired large
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tracts of lands through purchases, treaties, and annexations. Significant acquisitions include the
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Louisiana Purchase the Oregon Territory Acquisition and the winning of lands from Mexico after the Mexican War These lands were initially organized into territories governed directly by federal laws
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The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established a template for the transition from a territory to a state
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outlining a path that many future states would follow. This process typically involved reaching a certain population threshold
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drafting a state constitution, and then gaining congressional approval. As territories grew, cities within them often played a pivotal role in their path to statehood
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Cities were the nuclei of economic activity, trade, and population growth. They served as hubs for settlers moving westward, offering services, supplies, and a base for further exploration and settlement
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Cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and St. Louis, due to their strategic locations along rivers, lakes, or coasts
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boomed as centers of commerce, transportation, and industry. But even more than trade, cities were focal points for political organization and representation
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As urban centers grew, so did their influence on territorial governments. They became seats of territorial government and later state government
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shaping political decisions, including those regarding statehood. And because much of the population of the United States during this time was based in rural areas
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often farming the land or working in resource extraction industries, there wasn't a huge desire for early but prominent cities to set out on their own
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At the time, despite being the primary areas for trade and politics
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the cities were very much reliant on the vast amounts of land attached to them
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Adding 34 new states to the country would be a monumental shift
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much more than this single video can cover. However, we can at least show what some of the changes might look like
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The biggest change would be the politics. At present, the United States has 100 senators and 435 U.S. representatives
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The number of senators is mandated at two per state with no cap
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This means that the number of senators in the country would grow to 168, a huge increase
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The U.S. House of Representatives, on the other hand, is proportional by population
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Each state gets at least one, but otherwise one is given for every 750,000 people
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This means that California, which currently has 52 representatives, would now have just 10 representatives
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The new states of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Riverside, San Diego, and Sacramento
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would get the remainder of California's former representatives. And this would change the Electoral College vote for the president as well
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At present, the U.S. doles out one Electoral College vote for each representative and senator a state has
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This means that there are 538 Electoral College votes today. But with our increase in senators, there would be an additional 68 electors
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meaning the former 270 votes to win marker will change. In total, 304 electors would be required to win the presidency under this new system
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But here's the thing. Due to having more population overall, the majority of the Electoral College votes would go to the city-states
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which means that the president would almost always be chosen by the 34 new city-states
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And if you looked at a recent political map lately nearly every single major metropolitan area in the country has consistently voted for a Democrat In this scenario Republicans would have a huge challenge winning a presidential election
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But it's not all good for Democrats. While under this scenario, there would be political gains
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the loss of land would be substantial. Land that Democrats often want to preserve
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but Republicans want to use as economic drivers. In Oregon and Washington state, for example
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the timber industries have been deeply curtailed, largely on the backs of voters from
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the Portland and Seattle metro regions. Should each become their own state, the political makeup
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of Oregon and Washington would likely be more conservative, and this would mean more land for
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resource extraction, and therefore more money for states that, prior to this, were bound to the
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wills of voters in large cities. There are many, many more ramifications that would be felt up and
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down the country. Culturally, it would further the ever-increasing divide between urban and rural
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populations, something that is already highlighted by voting patterns. A border separation would
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likely only increase that tension as states squabble for resources. In many ways, having
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the vast majority of land, the original and now far more rural states would have a lot more power
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Needless to say, everything in this video will never happen. Politically, while not impossible
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it's very hard. Each new state would need to hold a referendum. From there, it would need to be voted on by the state legislature
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Then the U.S. Congress would have to approve, and finally the President of the United States would have to sign off on it
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That process would need to be repeated 34 times. Doing that once would be a once-in-a-lifetime event
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In fact, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have each held referendums to try and move their own statehood processes along
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with very little desire from Congress to actually act on it. But more than the politics involved, culturally, it's not very palatable
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Recall that back in 2016, a proposed California initiative attempted to get on the ballot
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which would have separated the state into six new states. While not based on urban-rural boundaries, it's a similar idea as this video
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And it bombed. Hard. It didn't even make the ballot. The organizers could not get enough signatures to qualify to get voted on
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Californians clearly identify strongly with being Californian first, and anything else far below that
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All this is to say, the political and societal appetite for such a monumental shift simply
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doesn't exist, regardless of any political, economic, or cultural benefits it might achieve
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And because of that, we're likely going to be stuck with just 50 states for a very long time
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The United States has 50 states today. I would argue that it should have 52, with Washington DC and Puerto Rico made into a
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full state. But the idea that cities should be broken away from their current state is something
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that simply doesn't make a lot of sense. with neither historic precedent nor adequate benefits
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to make such an incredibly challenging shift. Instead, we'll all just have to learn to work together
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within our current borders. I hope you enjoyed learning more about what the United States
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would look like with 34 additional city-states. If you did, please subscribe to my channel
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If you want to listen to the podcast, you can do so here. If you want to watch more of my videos, click here
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Thanks for watching. See you next time
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