# What will be the next US state? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063 "2014-04-14T01:57:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/1 "2014-04-14T01:57:41Z")
This is the longest the USA has ever gone with no new states. I’m just curious as to what people think is the next one to come in, if any. Poll to follow. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/2 "2014-04-14T02:16:56Z")
My WAG is that: a) There will come a point when DC gets the Congressional representation of a state, without officially becoming a state. Might be a couple more decades, though. b) Puerto Rico will remain a commonwealth at least through 2030. Hard to tell after that. I won’t be around for the 100th anniversary of Alaska/Hawaii statehood in 2059, but I expect to get most of the way there. I don’t expect to see any new states in my lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/3 "2014-04-14T03:24:39Z")
Five new states in the Pacific; to make up for at least 7 in the CONUS that have seceded. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/4 "2014-04-14T03:35:53Z")
None. But _if_ it happens, it’ll have to be some special sort of circumstance like a major global disaster happens and we annex some other territory that wants us to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/5 "2014-04-14T03:38:03Z")
I don’t know when and it may not be the next state but I think Cuba will end up being a US state. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/6 "2014-04-14T03:43:52Z")
100 years seems like a very long for the “None” option, but I went ahead and checked it. Basically, I’m with others here who think the status quo will not see any new states. We’ll only have new states in response to some kind of unpredictable situation - natural disaster, political crisis, civil unrest, etc. Personally, I don’t understand why we have the status quo in the first place, but it seems to be a pretty stable situation. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/7 "2014-04-14T03:52:45Z")
Back in the seventies, there was a lot of speculation about Quebec becoming an independent nation and the rest of Canada breaking up with some provinces joining the United States. That’s not likely but I’m surprised it’s not even an option in the poll. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/8 "2014-04-14T04:04:55Z")
I voted none for the foreseeable future, but only because 100 years is way to long for the foreseeable future. 20 years is more like it, and I could see any of the other choices occuring after 2034. I’m not saying it’s likely there will be a change, I’m saying that would be enough time to allow a different political atmosphere that might consider it. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/9 "2014-04-14T04:29:48Z")
Puerto Rico is the only likely candidate but they have serious issues. It is a beautiful island in a great location but the main effect of statehood would be to bump Mississippi down to the #2 spot on most negative state rankings. It isn’t completely implausible for Puerto Rico to become a state but it would require some serious effort on both sides and I am not sure if it is worth it overall. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/10 "2014-04-14T04:31:45Z")
Puerto Rican support for statehood hasn’t changed much in fifty years; why will it change a lot in fifty more? Yeah statehood might pass in a referendum but Congress wouldn’t approve it until it’s way over 50%. Virgin Islands/American Samoa/Guam: way too small to work as states. You think California will let a state get two senators with only 200 thousand people? DC statehood died the second Marion Berry got re-elected mayor. The only state I could be seeing added is if Canada fell apart; Alberta and BC would be welcomed in with open arms. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/11 "2014-04-14T04:58:02Z")
Puerto Rico is the only likely candidate in the foreseeable future. DC may get representation, but whatever its status it won’t be admitted as a state. The other US territories are much too small. Guam, the largest, has only about 1/4 the population of the least populous state, Wyoming. Even if you threw in the Northern Marianas (which would involve political problems) it would still be less than half Wyoming. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/12 "2014-04-14T06:03:08Z")
Maybe DC, but I doubt it. I think the islands are more likely to become independent countries, than to become states in the union. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/13 "2014-04-14T06:39:29Z")
Is there anywhere, outside territories currently associated with the USA, that has expressed interest in joining the USA? ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/14 "2014-04-14T07:11:36Z")
I recall that in the early days of the Yom Kippur War there was a movement in Congress to make Israel the 51st state. How seriously this was taken, here, in Israel or in the Arab world, I don’t know. I’m guessing not very. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/15 "2014-04-14T08:04:06Z")
I voted “None” - it _should_ be Puerto Rico, ASAP, but it won’t be for … reasons? Plus, 50 is such a round number, you know? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/16 "2014-04-14T08:37:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Back in the seventies, there was a lot of speculation about Quebec becoming an independent nation and the rest of Canada breaking up with some provinces joining the United States. That’s not likely but I’m surprised it’s not even an option in the poll. Really??? What kind of people were speculating this? Does anyone else beside **Little Nemo** remember such speculation? I was too young in the 70s to have any memory of this, so I’m not challenging you, **Little Nemo** , but this just seems so absurd a speculation looking through 2014 lenses. Were there actual reasonable intelligent people speculating that this was a realistic possibility? Was this scenario speculated in Canada and the U.S. alike? Or was it an idea that was discussed around the water cooler in one country but unthinkable in the other? ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/17 "2014-04-14T08:50:09Z")
…Taiwan? …Israel? … Switzerland? Serious answer, if the EU breaks up, maybe Southern Ireland would be open to it. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/18 "2014-04-14T09:53:00Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Really??? What kind of people were speculating this? Does anyone else beside **Little Nemo** remember such speculation? I was too young in the 70s to have any memory of this, so I’m not challenging you, **Little Nemo** , but this just seems so absurd a speculation looking through 2014 lenses. > > Were there actual reasonable intelligent people speculating that this was a realistic possibility? > Was this scenario speculated in Canada and the U.S. alike? Or was it an idea that was discussed around the water cooler in one country but unthinkable in the other? I wasn’t alive in the '70s, but I clearly remember in the mid-'90s when Canada nearly broke up. Then, too, there was speculation - in the reputable national media, not just around water coolers - that if that happened one or two of Canada’s western provinces might want to join up with the US. I don’t remember anyone saying it was _likely_ to happen, just that it was a plausible scenario if the country splintered - which, remember, it came within a hair’s breadth of doing. Anyway, it’s not so terribly far-fetched: American culture and Anglophone Canadian culture are in many ways so similar that it could probably be done pretty easily. The articles I remember said that people in provinces like Alberta often feel like they have much more in common with the Rocky Mountain states to their south than they do with the provinces far to their east. ETA: Note, though, that I don’t think it’ll happen. My vote is that there will be no new states anytime for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/19 "2014-04-14T11:44:37Z")
In my most paranoid, anti-Nixon, drug induced thoughts, I imagined an Anschluss of English speaking Canada. And an expansion into Mexico for Lebensraum and cheap labor. On a more serious note (hell, the US annexing Superman’s Fortress of Solitude is more serious than the above), I guess there’s a slight possibility that California could split into two states. That sort of thing has only happened once before and there was a secession involved too. How might that be managed without a secession? California agrees to divide and decides on a border and then both NoCal and SoCal ask the US Congress to approve and to be accepted for statehood? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063/20 "2014-04-14T11:47:08Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Plus, 50 is such a round number, you know? Which is why squishing the Dakotas into one state while simultaneously adding DC would work nicely. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-will-be-the-next-us-state/686063.md?page=2)