How to stretch a fixed number of horizontal navigation items evenly and fully across a specified container

Question

The modern way to distribute items evenly is to set the following two declarations on the container element:

.container {
  display: flex; /* (1) */
  justify-content: space-between; /* (2) or space-around or space-evenly */ 
}

The value to use for justify-content depends on which kind of even distribution is needed.

enter image description here

See MDN

ul {
  list-style: none;
  padding: 0;
  width: 90vw;
  border: 3px solid gold;
  display: flex;
}
a {
  background: gold;
}
ul {
  justify-content: space-between;
}
ul ~ ul {
  justify-content: space-around;
}
ul ~ ul ~ ul {
  justify-content: space-evenly;
}

<h3>justify-content: space-between; </h3>

<ul id="nav">
  <li><a href="#">HOME</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">ABOUT</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">BASIC SERVICES</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">OUR STAFF</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">CONTACT US</a></li>
</ul>
<div>Distributes items evenly. The first item is flush with the start, the last is flush with the end </div>
<hr>
<h3>justify-content: space-around;</h3>
<ul id="nav">
  <li><a href="#">HOME</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">ABOUT</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">BASIC SERVICES</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">OUR STAFF</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">CONTACT US</a></li>
</ul>
<div>Distribute items evenly. Items have a half-size space on either end</div>
<hr>
<h3>justify-content: space-evenly;</h3>
<ul id="nav">
  <li><a href="#">HOME</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">ABOUT</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">BASIC SERVICES</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">OUR STAFF</a></li>
  <li><a href="#">CONTACT US</a></li>
</ul>
<div>Distribute items evenly. Items have equal space around them</div>
<hr>

Here’s my original answer – if for some reason using a flex container isn’t viable

Use text-align:justify on the container, this way it will work no matter how many elements you have in your list (you don’t have to work out % widths for each list item

    #nav {
        text-align: justify;
        min-width: 500px;
    }
    #nav:after {
        content: '';
        display: inline-block;
        width: 100%;
    }
    #nav li {
        display: inline-block;
    }

<ul id="nav">
    <li><a href="#">HOME</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">ABOUT</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">BASIC SERVICES</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">OUR STAFF</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">CONTACT US</a></li>
</ul>

FIDDLE

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