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Vermont and Wyoming have fewer residents.

Hey, as a former Vermonter I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell everyone that. Do you want us to take away Bernie? /s

Indeed. 436 states, here we come!

If we granted statehood to every federal territory that has more residents than Wyoming, we'd have 52.

Why choose the least populous state as the standard for admission instead of, say, the median?

Probably to give your argument as many points in its favor as possible - which is quite difficult considering how absurd your comment was. You originally said "436 states here we come" - even going by the lowest bar we currently have we'd only have two additional states.

Only 28 of our current states have a population above the median population of all US states and territories. I don't think the other 22 states would be wild about that admission standard.

> I don't think the other 22 states would be wild about that admission standard.

We have a well established process for asking states about this sort of thing, the US Congress. They don't seem to be wild about the minimum populous state standard, we should ask about the median populous state standard.

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