A majority of the citizens wanted statehood.
With an estimated population of 92 million, the Phillipines would be the largest US state. Something the other states wouldn t have been too keen with. Not to mention that it wasn t as wealthy as the other states.Guam only has 178,000 people less than half of Wyoming, the least populated state. So not really big enough to be a state. Same goes for USVI with only 104,000 people and Northern Mariana Islands with only 86,000.Puerto Rico is an odd case. If it became a state, it would have to swith from Spanish to English as Texas did when it became a state. Puerto Rico taxes are different from the states since it s a commonwealth. And the Puerto Rican government really doesn t want to give that up.