The defeat in NRW also strips Mrs Merkel's government of its majority in the Bundesrat, the upper house of the legislature, which represents the states.

All but one of the states that would have lost House seats in a 1920 reapportionment proceeded to lose when the 1930 census was taken.

Several states in the north-east and Midwest have lost population, and will probably lose seats in the House of Representatives (and electoral-college votes) to states in the South.