More than 330 million people live in the United States, but that doesn't mean the population is distributed evenly. Far from it.
Using the latest US Census data, we determined that just nine states — California, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia and Florida — account for half of the entire US population.
For 41 US states to have the same number of residents as the remaining nine, you have to consider their relative population densities.
States like California and New York have high average densities of 251 and 420 people per square mile because of the millions of people crammed into major cities. That's even taking into account both states' many suburbs, where people are more spread out.
States without heavily-populated cities have very different numbers. Alaska, the largest state by area, ranks 50th in population density, with only 1.3 people per square mile.
The more granular you get in how you slice up the US population, the more pronounced the differences in density become. Just look at the breakdown by county:
After a while, you begin to wonder whether there's anyone living here at all.
