50-State Redistricting Simulations

Every decade following the Census, states and municipalities must redraw districts for Congress, state houses, city councils, and more. The goal of the 50-State Simulation Project is to enable researchers, practitioners, and the general public to use cutting-edge redistricting simulation analysis to evaluate enacted congressional districts. Evaluating a redistricting plan requires analysts to take into account each state’s redistricting rules and particular political geography. Comparing the partisan bias of a plan for Texas with the bias of a plan for New York, for example, is likely misleading. Comparing a state’s current plan to a past plan is also problematic because of demographic and political changes over time. Redistricting simulations generate an ensemble of alternative redistricting plans within a given state which are tailored to its redistricting rules. Unlike traditional evaluation methods, therefore, simulations are able to directly account for the state’s political geography and redistricting criteria. This dataset contains sampled districting plans and accompanying summary statistics for all 50 U.S. states.