North Dakota

Congressional Race

Population (1994): 638,800 (down 0.1% from 1990), 0.2% of U.S. total

Voting-age population: 467,000; 1994 turnout, 50%

Median age: 32.4 years

Median household income: $28,278 ($3,986 below U.S. median)

Unemployment: 2.9% (2.7% below U.S. average, March 1996)

Last presidential election:

Clinton (D): 32%

Bush (R): 44%

Perot (I): 23%

Congressional delegation: Three Democrats, no Republicans

In a state where everybody seems to know everybody else, dry seasons and bankrupt farmlands in the 1980s explain why North Dakota's population is less now than it was in 1930. Its land yields about one-tenth of the U.S. wheat supply, and agriculture makes up about half of its economy. North Dakota tends to send Republicans to Bismarck and Democrats to Washington, has no voter registration, one of the lowest divorce rates in the nation, and only one clinic that performs abortions. No wonder the state motto is, "Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable."

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