Talk:List of United States congressional districts

Better Rename A District
The renaming discussed below was done in May 2006. This discussion is kept for archival purposes.

I think United States House of Representatives, Foo District number (example: United States House of Representatives), Iowa District 3 is inelegant and doesn't fit in with Wikipedia's rule on Naming Conventions.

I think we should rename them all (sigh, yes, all):


 * Option A1) Foo's #th congressional district (example: Iowa's 3rd congressional district).
 * Option A2) Foo's #th Congressional district (example: Iowa's 3rd Congressional District).
 * Option A3) Foo's numberth congressional district (example: Iowa's Third congressional district).
 * Option A4) Foo's numberth Congressional district (example: Iowa's Third Congressional District).

Let's generate some discussion. Is the current naming system OK? Is there a better way to name them, other than what I've proposed? Add your options after my Option A, above.

But if nobody posts discussion, I'll just slog through and change them all starting on May 12006. &mdash;Markles 01:38, 15 April 2006 (UTC) '''OK. I'm going to start changing article names.''' I'll try to get through all of it by May 15, 2006. See also Template talk:Ushr. &mdash;Markles 13:18, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Do it! (I happen to like A2 the best, but any of these are way better than the clunky naming system in place.) Grand  master  ka  06:41, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
 * What happened to the way discussed in the uppermost item listed of merely directing all links to relevent sections of the state's articles. No one made any comment about it.-Daniel,levine 21:01, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Sadly, we can't redirect to article sections, just to articles themselves. I wish that weren't the case. &mdash;Markles 12:24, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Need to be done
It would be very interesting to add partisan lean and party of current representative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_Partisan_Voting_Index#By_congressional_district But I don't know what I'm doing with tables and I don't want to mess it up. ````Adbdb0o — Preceding unsigned comment added by Adbdb0o (talk • contribs) 17:06, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Renaming: Should be capitalized
Option A2, above, should be preferred to A1 ("Congressional District" instead of "congressional district. And the first and only four representatives whose websites I checked concur: "Maryland's Eighth District", "GA's Fourth District", "Maryland's Fourth Congressional District", "19th Congressional District of Florida".  --zenohockey 16:59, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree... I did a random sampling of the House websites, and I found Ohio's First Congressional District, Maryland's 1st Congressional District, 9th Congressional District, The Second District of Kansas, 22nd Congressional District in California, Florida's 20th Congressional District, 10th District of Virginia, 13th District of Georgia, and Nevada’s Third Congressional District. So while not universal, capitalisation is much preferred over the lower case "congressional district". Is there some sort of bot we could use to move them to their proper location? -- LV  (Dark Mark)  19:49, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree simply from my own experience. I thought 'Congress' or 'Congressional' was always capitalized.  And in the letterhead from my Congresswoman, 'District' is capitalized in "3rd District, Kentucky".  Stevie is the man!  Talk &bull; Work 03:44, 18 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I think the above cases represent times when "Congressional District" is capitalized because it is a title. For example, "It Takes A Village" is capitalized because it is a title, but we wouldn't always capitalize "village."—Markles 13:57, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Article malfunction?
Is anyone else having this problem: The main article template references are not functioning after South Carolina's 3rd congressional district? The list of districts after SC-3 appears as undefined's NaNth congressional district ; very strange. --G1076 13:26, 18 August 2006 (UTC)


 * No, it's a bigger problem. Wikipedia seems to be tempremental right now.  Sometimes it transcludes templates, sometimes it doesn't.  I thought I was the only one noticing the problem.  I'd see  and  instead of the transcluded template.  I hope it will be fixed soon.  —Markles 13:53, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Infobox for Districts
I've had a bash and I've improved the 7 Alabama Districts and the 1st Arkansas over a few weeks, and I think statistical information could be better expressed with an infobox, considering every district article is going to have a Nat Atlas picture of it as well. Im not good with the technical side - any suggestions for a standard info box for districts? Orchid Righteous 08:55, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Consistency using Templates, etc.
imo these should be used whenever possible to achieve consistency.

The US House of Representatives template - example "ushr|Arizona|1|" - translates into Arizona's 1st congressional district.

The Congressional map link - example "(http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/az01_109.gif map)" - translates into (map).Flatterworld 15:53, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

General ticket

 * Please see a related discussion at Talk:General ticket.—Markles 16:28, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

At-large designation
I don't have time to discuss this now, but I've consolidated all the user discussions here.—Markles 14:51, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

You folks have me digging into Martis on the general ticket et al, and I think I've found a serious problem with the way we all use the term "at-large." Martis is quite emphatic that it only refers to instances where a seat is elected statewide when most of the seats are elected from districts. Hence it is not the generic term we have been using covering general ticket situations. We have all kinds of article titles and other designations that would seem to use the term improperly, especially in the 18th/19th century. A good example is Pennsylvania's At-large congressional district which, according to Martis, is not an at-large district at all. Nor does he use the "at-large" terminology when there is only one seat. So he would seem to say Delaware's At-large congressional district is wrong as well. Without having given the problem too much thought it seems we might replace "at-large" with "statewide" on these articles, renaming the first article "Pennsylvania's statewide congressional district." What do you think?

I also noticed the Pennsylvania's At-large congressional district is incorrect in that districts were used in the 2nd United States Congress. I know you're in the midst of a project on these and wonder if you would like me to make corrections like this, or do them yourself? stilltim 11:20, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * It seems to me that we have four scenarios:

Thus each instance of "At-Large" in all of the relevant articles should be examined to see which of the four scenarios really applies. We can use the table in the General Ticket article as the master list for that scenario. "Statewide" is pretty obvious (used every time and only when there is only one rep). Perhaps we should create two new articles, At-Large congressional districts and Plural congressional districts explaining when they are used, with master lists of those (similar to the table in General Ticket.--Appraiser 13:00, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * 1) At-Large is when a seat is elected statewide when other seats in the state are elected by district.
 * 2) General Ticket is when the entire delegation was elected statewide (when two or more representatives came from the state).
 * 3) Statewide is when a state has only one representative.
 * 4) Plural District is a multi-member district that is not elected statewide.
 * This I plan to do in the next day or so. stilltim 17:45, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The other variable would seem to be whether or not these seats are filled from one ballot with all names, or separate contests for each seat, either statewide for A/L or G/T, or district wide for plural. I will research Martis further to try and get some conclusive data on this. stilltim 17:45, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Appraisers suggestion on the new articles. However, while we need a better way to describe multi-member at-large seats for the earlier congresses, I don’t think we can simply abandon the “At-large” terminology. Martis' definition seems to be the exception to the rule, and may be using an overly simplified definition of at-large to make a point. He is by far the most comprehensive source on districts and elections, but he is only one source, and I don’t think can simply use his definitions and ignore other, particularly government sources. I see the issue as breaking down as follows:


 * At-large v.1: when a state is entitled to only one seat in Congress.
 * At-large v.2: State is entitled to more than one seat, and chooses to elect one seat at-large and the others from individual districts.
 * At-large v.3: State is entitle to more than one seat, and elects the entire delegation statewide on general ticket. In this case, General Ticket describes the method of election, and not the seats themselves.
 * I think it would be simple enough to update and expand the at-large article to explain these three different situations in more detail.
 * Plural District or Multi-Member District: The state is entitled to more than one seat in Congress, and the state assigns individual districts multiple seats.
 * Martis uses plural district. Congressional Quarterly uses multi-member district. I’m open to either term, with a redirect from the one we don’t use for the main article.

To support keeping at-large, I would point out today all states that elect one member to the House refer to that seat as "At-large," which is supported by other scholarly works. Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections uses the at-large designation for all statewide races, even in cases where more than one member elected was elected statewide. For those cases, it delineates one "At-large Seat" with multiple members elected on a general ticket, similar to the multi-member single district.

Moreover, At-large is used widely by official government documents today, particularly the Official Congressional Directory and the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Both the Congressional Directory and the Bioguide refer to all seats elected statewide as "Representatives At-large," whether the state had one or multiple seats in Congress. This is true for modern and historical elections.

At-large is also official defined in the two sections of the U.S. Code related to congressional districts, and is the term used by the Supreme Court in several districting cases in the 1960s (see Westberry v. Sanders and Reynolds v. Sims).
 * “In each State entitled in the Ninety-first Congress or in any subsequent Congress thereafter to more than one Representative under an apportionment made pursuant to the provisions of section 2a (a) of this title, there shall be established by law a number of districts equal to the number of Representatives to which such State is so entitled, and Representatives shall be elected only from districts so established, no district to elect more than one Representative (except that a State which is entitled to more than one Representative and which has in all previous elections elected its Representatives at Large may elect its Representatives at Large to the Ninety-first Congress).
 * In paragraph (c)(1)-(5) describes several situations in which members (even multiple members) could be elected by a state at large.
 * Branch v. Smith 538 U.S. 254: U.S. Supreme Court decision on a Mississippi redistricting issue after the 2000 census, on whether Mississippi’s failure to redistrict automatically required all seats to be elected at-large. The Supreme Court mandated single districts, but the term “at-large” was used extensively to describe the statewide option.

I think we should rely on official government sources as much as possible in how to name the seats, and use Martis and other sources as supporting documentation. My recommendation would be to keep "At-large" as the term we use, and then break it down as a general ticket for two or more seats. For the Ordinal Congress articles, we can list those states as having “at-large” seat, but make it clear that it has multiple members on a general ticket, through footnotes, etc. For the delegation lists, we can do what Markles has done and list it as “At-large on a general ticket” with Seat 1, Seat 2, Seat 3, and so on. We can describe the issue for each general ticket election on a state-by-state basis in the "At-large" article for that state.

One option could be like this entry for New Hampshire for the 28th Congress, rather than listing each as a separate at-large seat.


 * New Hampshire (New Hampshire's at-large congressional district)


 * Edmund Burke (D)
 * John P. Hale (D)
 * Moses Norris, Jr. (D)
 * John R. Reding (D)

Sorry for the long-winded response, but I’ve been giving this a lot of thought lately. I’m open to suggestions, but bottom line I think "At-large" is still the right term to use.Dcmacnut 15:36, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

More thoughts
Having given it nowhere near as much thought, I am hesitant to weigh in again, but have the sense this is like we are trying to "fit a square peg into a round hole." Clearly the "at-large" terminology is perfectly appropriate for most 20th/21st century situations, and its common usage today would suggest it communicates the concept well to today's reader, even for earlier situations. Hence all of our wide use of it, both in WP and in the sources cited above. I imagine all of these terms have been created, abandoned and tossed around somewhat carelessly since 1787. My only concern is that our work not look sloppy and ignorant of the precise terminology. I honestly don't know whether Martis made up his semantic distinctions or is faithfully following some definitions known only in rarified circles, but he clearly is the giant scholar in the field, and his terminology should at least be noted.

So there would seem to be two directions we could go. 1) Avoid the use of the term "at-large" except in pure Martis "at-large" situations, replacing it with "statewide" and further qualifying whether it is a general ticket or single member state situation, or 2) using "at-large" in a generic sense for all multi-member situations, documenting that it is being used generically and that not all scholars use that terminology, and then noting the possible ways they are described in a note of some kind. We're kind of following the second path now, except some of the documentation is missing and the capitalization of "At-large" suggests a proper noun and therefore something not generic. Pending further discussion and research, the second alternative seems best to me right now, only because its the easiest, but I think we all need to keep reading and considering the ramnifications. stilltim 17:45, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Where vs. How
It seems to me that:
 * "At-large" means from a greater area, as opposed to a limited district, whereas
 * "general ticket" is ''a method of selecting multiple candidates either from a district or at-large.

That is… AL is where while GT is "how."

Therefore they can overlap and are not mutually exclusive.—Markles 19:13, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think that's accurate. The book The American Commonweath by James Bryce, on page 138, describes the general ticket. He is discussing it in terms of congressional redistricting restritions. "Where a State legislature has failed to redistribute the State into congressional districts, after the State has received an increase of representatives, the additional member or members are elected by the voters of the whole State on a general ticket, and are called 'representatives at large.'"This seems to reinforce the Where and How difference. In all of my reviews of old Congressional Globe debates, the phrase general ticket was bandied about rather freely when referring to these multi-member elections, but the statutes resulting from those debates used at large to describe the area of the state the representatives served.Dcmacnut 22:10, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

More thoughts 2
As Stilltim suggested I did more research, and stumbled upon the Encyclopedia of the U.S. Congress (1995). The entry on congressional districts in the book was, as luck would have it, written by Martis, and he summarizes his terms in much the same way Stilltim lays out above.

•	general ticket representation: no congressional districts and entire delegation elected statewide •	plural district representation: one geographically defined district elects more than one person •	at-large representation: the "majority of a state's delegation is elected from geographically defined districts, but one, two, three, or four additional representatives are elected statewide."

Martis goes on to say, with respect to general ticket, that he uses the term to differentiate between it and his definition of at-large representation. Moreover, his use of the term "geographically defined districts" seems to drive home his point that technically, under general ticket that there were no districts at all. That seems to hold true today for single-member statewide districts, but even those are referred to as "at-large districts."

However, in the entry on congressional elections, a different author, Jerrold Rusk, discusses "area of representation" and defines the terms like this.

•	single-member district: electing one member per district •	plural or multimember district: electing several members per district •	mixed single-member/at-large system: electing some members from single-member districts and some statewide: •	completely at-large system: electing all members statewide

It seems to me that Martis' definition is one of his own creation to differentiate between his three alternatives. Where I run into problems is that Martis appears to be the only one who defines districts in this manner, and if we use relied on his term terms, what naming system would we use? Do we call these "State's general ticket congressional district" or something else? That's not entirely clean by itself, particularly since many plural districts also used the general ticket method to elect their members. The alternative would be not to assign them a district at all, and use "State's general ticket congressional delegation." However, that would lead multiple articles focusing on the same issues, so using at-large seems cleaner, since it is easily understood. Regardless of how they were elected, all statewide members are referred to as "Representatives at Large" in official records. We would then sub-divide the at-large articles to describe those members elected statewide on a general ticket. We seem to be already part of the way there.Dcmacnut 17:54, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Texas
Texas has a link to Texas congressional districts that leads to Texas's congressional delegations that I think needs to be fixed or removed. Also, Texas has a banner saying the information is outdated. I took a look at the current layout, and everything from the 110th looks the same. Anyone know why the banner was put up? Brinlong (talk) 22:39, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Texas's congressional districts
It correctly points to Texas's congressional districts, which then redirects to United States congressional delegations from Texas. The congressional districts article needs to be written, and until then the redirect will suffice.—Markles 00:16, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

"Update" banner
The banner is there because the map was changed for the 110th Congress. The Texas's 23rd congressional district, in particular changed. The map that's provided at List of United States congressional districts is from the 109th Congress. Someone could download the new map from NationalAtlas.gov and replace it in our article, then remove the banner. —Markles 00:16, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Redistricting after 2000 census
The text inaccurately states that Texas redrew districts after the 2000 census for the 108th Congress and then again in 2003 for the 109th Congress. Texas drew districts once -- for the 109th Congress and subsequent Congresses. The US District Court drew the districts in Texas for the 108th Congress. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.53.127.174 (talk) 01:12, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
 * OK. I've corrected it by using the passive voice to deflect who did the drawing.—Markles  13:34, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Maps
Why are all the maps only uploaded in tiny versions? I understand we want small maps for this article, but there's no good reason I'm aware of that we shouldn't upload bigger versions so that, at the very least, one can click on them and look at the more detailed image. john k (talk) 17:55, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
 * The original maps from National Atlas are in GIF format and available in that size only. They are the best, easily-accessible public domain maps of the congressional districts available to us at this time. If you or anyone else wants to create larger maps, feel free to do so.Dcmacnut (talk) 18:41, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
 * This page seems to have considerably larger maps. john k (talk) 03:51, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * They also have PDFs which are nicely detailed - is there any way to convert those to normal image files? There wouldn't be copyright issues, since they're public domain. john k (talk) 03:54, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

That is the source for all of the current congressional district maps. The PDF versions are not considerably larger than the GIF preview versions. The Census Bureau has wall-sized PDFs (36in by 42in) of individual districts, but while a large image, the PDFs actually have too much detail, right down to city streets and back roads, which makes the maps harder to read in my opinion. Also, the most recent version is only for the 109th Congress. Since two states redistricted (Texas and Georgia) for the 110th Congress, we wouldn't be able to use the Census maps for those two states until Census updates those maps. Moreover, the Census Bureau has imposed high-security on the PDFs, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to extract the information.Dcmacnut (talk) 14:19, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Understood about the difficulty. Still, this map seems considerably larger than this one. john k (talk) 15:12, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Just to clarify, my issue is with the maps for the states as a whole, not for the individual district maps. john k (talk) 15:13, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

Ah, that makes more sense. I wasn't quite sure what maps you were talking about. I hadn't realized that the state-wide maps were that small.Dcmacnut (talk) 15:48, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

The "change in apportionment" maps at the top are not at all color-blind friendly - the +1 (light yellow/orange) and -1 (light green) colors look extremely similar to red-green colorblind people. Sgtbilko99 (talk) 22:56, 6 January 2023 (UTC)

Congressional primary WP
What is WP on including primary election results in with the general election statistics in individual district pages, especially when the primaries are competitive, close, or noteworthy? I'm guessing that you would include those figures in the winner's article (or that of the loser/challenger, if they are still notable enough on other grounds to have an article of their own) if anything, but can someone point me to where it may have become established WP to generally not include congressional primary results? Homoaffectional (talk) 01:57, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Histories of Congressional Districts
Recent news on the NY-23 congressional race has raised the issue of history of Congressional Districts. Wikipedia does not handle the issue of a district's history well, in my opinion. For instance, despite news reports, the NY-23 WAS represented by Democrats as recently as the 1980s. But during that time, the NY-23 covered a totally different part of the state, as discussed below. This raises problems in the district pages and historic representatives' pages.

Problem 1. A district number does not necessarily correspond to a stable geographic area over time. Current district maps only date back to 2003, and the same numbered district can relate to a very different area within recent decades, and almost certainly relates to a different area as recently as 1950. For instance, NY-23 was part of the Bronx, Westchester, or both as recently as 1981. (My source for this is "The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989" by Kenneth C. Martis.) This difference poses serious issues. One issue is that a list of prior representatives of a numbered district going back over decades or centuries is misleading to the extent it suggests citizens of that area of the state were represented by that list of people. The solution to this issue is unclear. One solution would be to provide a list on each "present" district's page of the historic districts that have overlapped with the present district, and the historic districts' representatives during the relevant time periods. In the case of NY-23, this would mean that during the following Congresses, the matched districts should be included: - 93rd to 97th Congresses, at least the NY-30; - 88th to 92nd Congresses, at least the NY-30 and NY-31; - 83rd to 87th Congresses, at least the NY-31, NY-32 and NY-33; - 79th to 82nd Congresses, at least the NY-33 and NY-34; - etc. This is not necessarily the only or best solution, but I wanted to start the discussion by offering at least one constructive idea (even if a tedious one to implement).

Problem 2. "Logic" leads people who don't understand the history of Congressional pages to "deduce" facts about representatives. To wit, the article on Samuel S. Stratton assumes he is a Republican based on CNN and NYTimes reports that the NY-23 hasn't been represented by anything but Republicans since prior to 1900. As discussed above, the NY-23 HAS been represented by a Democrat as recently as the 1980s. Insofar as the statements made by CNN and the NYTimes are not literally correct, they should not be relied upon in editing Representative's entries.

It may be that Sam Stratton was a Republican, and it may be that CNN and NYTimes mean that the current area of the NY-23 hasn't been represented by anything but Republicans, but wikipedia's treatment of the history of congressional districts makes it virtually impossible to trace a claim like that. Worse, wikipedia's current treatment is misleading rather than helpful to such an inquiry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.161.38.99 (talk) 02:54, 5 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I fully understand and agree. Unfortunately, with gerrymandering and such, it is diffucult to say exactly what previous numbered districts are in an area. Also, it is very difficult to find maps of historical district boundaries, at least online, because sources know that most people are only interested in the current districts. If you know an accessible history of congression districts, we would love to have it and improve this area. Reywas92 Talk  03:52, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Maps for districts used in 2012 elections
Anyone know when these will be available?--Bhuck (talk) 22:16, 6 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The current maps were imported from the National Atlas. Maps of the 2012 districts are available on the National Atlas web site now, but importing them will involve a lot of work. --Footwarrior (talk) 16:30, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
 * 2012 maps should be incorporated. BUT DO NOT remove the old ones.  This is, after all, a historical resource.—GoldRingChip  21:17, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Agree with GoldRingChip. By the way, where can we find those new maps? On the National Atlas website, I can only find printable maps for the 112th Congress. DimiTalen 08:55, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Any more information about when we can expect to find new maps?--Bhuck (talk) 21:26, 27 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I suspect that NationalAtlas.gov won't update until the 113th Congress begins.—GoldRingChip 21:42, 27 May 2012 (UTC)
 * That is in about 8 minutes now, so hopefully we will not have to wait much longer.--Bhuck (talk) 16:52, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

New maps coming later in 2013
The National Atlas twitter feed announced today that they will post new maps "later this year." I suspect by June 2013. Anyone looking to update maps in Wikipedia should follow that twitter feed for the announcement when the maps are available. —GoldRingChip 20:07, 24 January 2013 (UTC)
 * There was a tweet dated 24 April announcing new maps, but I have no idea what to do about that now.--Bhuck (talk) 09:59, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Yup, they tweeted:
 * NEW 1 Data: 113th Congressional Districts for download or for use as a Web Map Service. http://1.usa.gov/17Xs76O or http://1.usa.gov/17KgBvv
 * But it's just a map layer, not a printable map, like what they had for the 112th Congress HERE. Maybe someone else out there can manipulate the layers for Wikipedia, but I can't.  I'll have to to wait for the printables. —GoldRingChip  13:04, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Any idea when they might come?--Bhuck (talk) 06:54, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * They're here, at the same address. They appear to have been downloaded for some states but not others.  It is urgently needed to download these maps for all states and to incorporate them not only into this page but into all 50 state delegation pages and all 435 district pages.  --BlueMoonlet (t/c) 17:30, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I just updated the AZ-1 page, to give an idea of what I mean. --BlueMoonlet (t/c) 17:39, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
 * It looks like more updating is necessary, several maps don't seem to reflect the current borders: (my source: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/map). Arizona looks ok, but Louisiana, for example, is no longer correct. -- 7partparadigm talk 05:04, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Kennedy Space Centre's Launch Complex 39
I know that Bill Posey and Sandy Adams are Brevard County's current reps whose districts cover the KSC area, Merritt Island, Titusville, and the Space Coast. I also know that before Bill Nelson (one-time Shuttle astronaut) became a Senator he represented the area until he retired at the 1990 elections; he was elected to the House in 1978, but I do not know for sure if the area was ALREADY a part of his district at the time, or if it was transferred to his seat in subsequent redistricting during his tenure. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Harry Porter, 26, UK — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.149.242.9 (talk) 16:30, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Inaccurate information; reference failure.
In the section "extremes", it is stated that Wyoming's at-large district is the least populous of all districts, and there is a reference to a Census Bureau .pdf provided as a citation. First, that is incorrect: Both of Rhode Island's districts are less populous than Wyoming's single district. (The "State with the fewest people in the average district" just above that should make it clear, since the average for Rhode Island's two districts is more than 40,000 fewer people than for Wyoming's at-large district.) Secondly, the Census Bureau publication does not identify the least populous districts resulting from the 2010 census: it cannot, because the new districts in almost every state were not finalized until after the November 2011 publication date. The only certainty was that Montana would once again have the most populous district, as it is the most populous state with a single representative. (Rhode island is the least populous state with more than one). I know that I have seen a list (somewhere) with the districts listed in population order; I'll see if I can find it. But until then, I have slapped a cite failure and dubious tags on the statement until I can fix it.  Horologium  (talk) 22:45, 2 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I have found a list of congressional districts (including a whole host of demographic information, including population) for the 113th congress, but I am not sure if it can be considered a reliable source; it appears to be a reputable firm, using the Census Bureau's American Community Survey as the source of its data. I don't see any problems, but other editors may disagree. The table is midway down this page, and when all states are included and sorted, it indicates that the least populous congressional district is RI-1, followed by RI-2, then WY-AL. (The remaining districts in the top 10 least populous districts, excluding DC, which is listed, include all three districts each in Nebraska and West Virginia, plus VT-AL.) I am not familiar with the company that produced the list (Proximity), but the American Community Survey website does not have datasets for the new congressional districts, and Proximity does. If I get any response at all from the 40-some people who have this watchlisted, I'll follow the consensus of the discussion. Otherwise, on Sunday (February 10), I will change the article and reference the population figures (most and least populous) to the table from Proximity. It at least looks to be accurate, unlike what is currently on the page.  Horologium  (talk) 16:04, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
 * That looks like a good enough source for now. Use it, and we'll correct it later or insert a better source later.—GoldRingChip  00:38, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Working files
In case they are useful to anyone (e.g. to create per-state lists), the files I've used to create the table are available on my website:

The original source is, which was copied-and-pasted to sheet 1, column 1 of the spreadsheet. All the other working should be obvious. Thryduulf 18:17, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
 * To make it clear, I release all the above to the public domain. Thryduulf 23:22, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Is there any way of updating this table to reflect Georgia's 2007 redistricting? The table is currently out of date. Pillsberry (talk) 20:26, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

New Maps for the 113th Congress
Hello all, I have uploaded new maps for the post-2013 redistricting cycle, and am up currently uploading them for use on this page, and hopefully for the individual state pages as well. They are going up nicely, please post any questions or comments about the change. All the best. --7partparadigm talk 07:27, 2 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Statewide map order
 * On the topic of new statewide maps, is there a particular reason why they are being stacked in reverse order (eg. 2003-2013 before 2013-current)? This seems confusing to me. It seems to me that it should be current maps first, previous maps second, if at all - as they do not represent current boundaries. What are your thoughts on this? --7partparadigm talk 19:40, 2 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much for working on this! I strongly suggest that the non-current maps for individual states be removed entirely from this page.  On each page, the information that first meets the reader's eye should be current.  Obsolete maps should appear only in clearly labeled "History" sections.  I suggest that there might be a "History" section for this page, but it should contain non-current maps and/or graphs for Congress as a whole.  The obsolete state maps might appear on pages for individual districts and/or individual state delegations, again in clearly labeled "History" sections.  --BlueMoonlet (t/c) 04:55, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I support moving non-current maps off this page, because it's already a big page with lots of images. However, if they are kept, then the correct order would be earliest maps first, later maps last… that's standard chronological order.—GoldRingChip 13:26, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Ok, maybe jumping the gun a bit on this, but it looks like all current voices are effectively in agreement that only current statewide district maps belong on this list page. And Esprqii was kind enough to show us a way of making this shift on the Oregon's congressional districts page, by having a "historical boundary section" in the state's district page, which I feel would be a huge improvement to just stacking old maps at the headers. The historical boundaries of these districts are important to keep track of, and need a place to live. Taking the liberty to make these changes, feedback very much welcome from all interested parties. -- 7partparadigm talk 22:30, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Aw shucks, I didn't even see there was a discussion on this, so glad at least one person likes the idea. Now we just need some district-focused maps to go on the individual district pages. Any thoughts on that? The National Atlas people are making it tough on us this time around! --Esprqii (talk) 23:52, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
 * First priority, I should think, is to make sure that all 50 state delegation pages and all 435 district pages have non-obsolete maps. Once that is done, then you can start to think about fancy projects like that.  --BlueMoonlet (t/c) 19:49, 4 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm working with some .shp files that might shed light to the issue, current and past. "The hen is the wisest of all the animal creation because she never cackles until after the egg has been laid." - Abe Lincoln, 1863 --7partparadigm talk 04:16, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

District level maps
Hello again, everyone. I have the necessary GIS data and software to start creating the district level maps the post 2013 district boundaries. I would first like to state that I am interested in updating these so that all maps that wikipedia is providing are current - and I welcome any feedback on this project at large.

However, more specifically, I have some style choices to make before mass-producing these maps, and I was hoping to get some feedback. The main influence on the overall appearance of these maps will revolve around the base-map selection. Which base map I use will not effect the quality of the data, merely its presentation. I have posted 3 possibilities below to gather feedback (for the example district, I chose an interesting one: Florida's own District 5!):

I think I've already picked the one I personally like best, but I would like to set these down and see what the other editors have to say before starting. All the best. --7partparadigm talk 02:05, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * The National Atlas maps have county boundaries and the boundaries of neighboring congressional districts. Some old ones also show roads.  Personally, if you can, I would leave out the landforms and maybe also the roads, and add county boundaries and the boundaries of neighboring congressional districts.  --BlueMoonlet (t/c) 06:21, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for taking on this project. I agree with much of what BlueMoonlet says. I would say the most important things to show on this map, in order, are: major cities, county boundaries, major roads, major bodies of water, and boundaries of adjacent districts. You have districts like Oregon's 2nd congressional district where county and city boundaries are important, then you have districts like New York's 15th congressional district in which roads and water are the major dividing lines. Of your current options, I think 3 is probably the cleanest. I don't think we need the latitude and longitude lines, nor the purple boundaries in the water (indicating international waters?). Those are my thoughts. --Esprqii (talk) 19:19, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * My order of preference is 3, 2, 1. I also agree that county lines would be nice, and that international water lines do not need to show up. Roads (or rivers, canals, railroads, etc) and boundaries of adjacent districts are also good, but not too much that it becomes distracting.--Bhuck (talk) 21:51, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the feedback. The GIS interpenetration software that I am using has some resolution limitations and immutable basemap default settings that may influence things like inclusion of county boundaries, which I am having difficulty influencing at far zoom levels. I don't think I have the ability to meet all of the needs described here for every map, but I will do my best to include as much relevant data in the maps I generate. --7partparadigm talk 01:53, 12 March 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.161.38.14 (talk)

Historical district maps
Hello all, I have created historical congressional district maps for the previous 40 years for many states (1973-2013), and am going to start posting them. These are statewide maps with metropolitan district highlights, which I am posting now to the statewide congressional district pages (ex: Virginia's congressional districts). I am very proud of this data, which has been rendered from the following UCLA study: http://cdmaps.polisci.ucla.edu, “Digital Boundary Definitions of United States Congressional Districts, 1789 – 2012.” The accuracy of these shapefiles have been verified, and I am confident that they are the real deal. I am happy to address any issues which may come up with these maps, please post any comments, questions, or concerns here on this talk page. All the best. 7partparadigm talk 02:40, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Poor wording - "obsolete since the XXX census"
This isn't correct. The census is the basis for triggering a redistricting occurs, but districts don't disappear instantly. There must be a better way to say this, such as "Redistricting after XXX census" or "Eliminated after XXX census". I volunteer to change it everywhere, if a consensus is reached on an improvement.Marzolian (talk) 04:26, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Redistricting not always due to reapportionment
Current text: "The quantity (apportionment) and boundaries (redistricting) of districts are determined after each census, although in some cases states have changed the boundaries more than once per census."

Suggestion: "As the population of each state changes, the quantity of districts in each state may change through apportionment after each decennial census. The boundaries of each district may be redrawn after apportionment, or for other reasons, such as population shifts within the state, to protect the voting rights of minorities, or at the discretion of the state government."

Thoughts?Marzolian (talk) 04:57, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

plurals
Shouldn't Arkansas's, Illinois's, Kansas's, Massachusetts's & Texas's be without the last "s"? I believe the plural of S and X ends in just an apostrophe. Smarkflea (talk) 00:24, 16 April 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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District Out of Order by Area
Illinois 9th is listed with an area of 91.85, but 5 districts with larger areas are listed as smaller than that. EvanJ35 (talk) 01:29, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

Areas Don't Match District Pages
For Alabama 1st, Florida 18th, Florida 19th, and possibly others, the area in the table is far off from the area in the page for the district. It may not be worth changing until after redistricting. EvanJ35 (talk) 04:54, 7 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Districts for the obsolete 117th congress are listed in the area table rather than the current 118th congress following redistricting. Does anyone have plans to update this? Or know where the information could be found? 69.58.52.208 (talk) 15:35, 4 January 2023 (UTC)

1993 Apportionment Map - Colorado
On the map for house seats after the 1993 reapportionment Colorado is said to have 7 seats. Then, on the map for the 2003 reapportionment, Colorado is said to have gained a seat putting them at 7 seats again. I'm assuming that after 1993 Colorado only had 6 seats.

Not sure if anyone knows how to edit the map but I unfortunately do not. Benmsch (talk) 19:20, 24 February 2024 (UTC)