AbstractThe problem of a polyelectrolyte near the rod limit is formulated incorporating both the short‐range stiffness of the backbone (the “wormlike chain”) and the electrostatic interaction between segments taken as a Debye–Húckel potential. By the use of a physically valid approximation an expression is derived for the mean‐square extension length of a short polyelectrolyte chain. Some remarks are made on the relationship between the electrostatic interaction and the usual excluded‐volume problem for polym