# List of states and territories of the United States by population density

Map of states scaled proportional to population (2015)

This is a list of the 50 states, the 5 territories, and the District of Columbia by population density, population rank, and land area. It also includes a sortable table of density by states, territories, divisions, and regions by population rank and land area, and a sortable table for density by states, divisions, regions, and territories in square miles and square kilometers.

Population density is defined as the population per (divided by) land area. Resident population is from the United States Census Bureau estimates for July 1, 2015, (for the 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico) and from the 2015 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs for territories besides Puerto Rico.[1][2] In the second table, territorial data (except Puerto Rico's) are from the 2010 Census. Land area is from the 2010 Census.[3]

The population density of the United States is lower than that of many other countries because of the United States' large land area. For example, the population density of the U.S. is a twelfth that of the Netherlands and a fifteenth that of South Korea. However, it is over 8 times higher than that of Canada and over 9 times higher than that of Australia.[4]

2015 density by population rank and land area (states, territories, and the District of Columbia)
State etc.Population densityPopulationLand area
Rank
(all)
Rank
(50 states)
per
mi2
per
km2
RankPeopleRankmi2km2
District of Columbia111011425150672,2285661158.0
New Jersey211218470118,958,013467,35419,046.8
Puerto Rico31046404293,680,058493,5159,103.8
Rhode Island421021394441,056,298511,0342,678.0
Massachusetts53871336156,794,422457,80020,201.9
Guam680831453169,88552210543.9
US Virgin Islands779930854106,90654134347.1
Connecticut84741286303,590,886484,84212,540.7
American Samoa97212795555,5385577199.4
Maryland105618238196,006,401429,70725,141.0
Delaware11648518746945,934501,9495,047.9
New York127420162419,795,7913047,126122,055.8
Florida138378145320,271,2722653,625138,888.1
Northern Mariana Islands143071185655,07053179463.6
Pennsylvania159286110612,802,5033244,743115,883.8
Ohio1610284109711,614,3733540,861105,829.5
California171125197139,144,8183155,959[5]403,932.0
Illinois181223189512,859,9952455,519143,793.5
Hawaii191322286411,431,603476,42316,635.5
Virginia201421281128,382,9933639,490102,278.6
North Carolina211520679910,042,8022948,618125,920.0
Indiana221618471166,619,6803835,82692,788.9
Georgia231717768810,214,8602157,513148,958.0
Michigan241817567109,922,5762256,539146,435.3
South Carolina251916262234,896,1464030,06177,857.6
Tennessee262016061176,600,2993441,235106,798.2
New Hampshire272114857421,330,608448,95323,188.2
Kentucky282211243264,425,0923739,486102,268.3
Louisiana292310841254,670,7243343,204111,897.8
Washington302410741137,170,3512066,456172,120.2
Wisconsin312510641205,771,3372554,158140,268.6
Texas322610540227,469,1142261,232676,587.8
Alabama33279537244,858,9792850,645131,169.9
Missouri34288834186,083,6721868,742178,041.0
West Virginia35297629391,844,1284124,03862,258.1
Minnesota36306826215,489,5941479,627206,233.0
Vermont3731672651626,042439,21723,871.9
Mississippi38326324332,992,3333146,923121,530.0
Arizona39336023146,828,0656113,594294,207.1
Arkansas40345722342,978,2042752,035134,770.0
Oklahoma41355722283,911,3381968,595177,660.2
Iowa42365521313,123,8992355,857144,669.0
Maine44384316431,329,3283930,84379,883.0
Oregon45394116274,028,9771095,988248,607.8
Utah46403614322,995,9191282,170212,819.3
Kansas47413614352,911,6411381,759211,754.8
Idaho5044207401,654,9301182,643214,044.4
New Mexico5145176372,085,1095121,298314,160.4
South Dakota524611447858,4691675,811196,349.6
North Dakota534710448756,9271769,001178,711.8
Montana544872451,032,9494145,546376,962.4
Wyoming55496252586,107997,093251,469.7
Total--92.035.5-325,487,227-3,536,2029,158,721
New Jersey is the most densely populated state.
New York is home to the most populous city in the country, and ranks 7th among the states in density.
Washington is 24th in density among the states.
Despite a fairly average population density, Vermont has one of the smallest populations, because of its small area.
Idaho's population has increased rapidly in recent decades, but its population density is lower than other states.
About half of the population of Alaska lives in the Anchorage metropolitan area.
Puerto Rico is the third most densely populated of states and possessions of the U.S.

## 2013 density (states, territories, divisions, and regions)

 Legend Division totals – 9 divisions for 50 states and DC Region totals – 4 regions (2 or 3 divisions each) Individual territories
2013 Density by states, divisions, regions, and territories in square miles and square kilometers
RankState/Territory/
Division/Region
Density

(Pop.
/ mi2)

Density

(Pop.
/ km2)

Geog.
sort
110,588.84,088.4MdAtl
21,210.1467.2MdAtl
31,055.9407.7Terr.
41,017.1392.7NEng
--991.0382.6USA
5858.0331.3NEng
6792.2305.9Terr.
7759.6293.3Terr.
8742.6286.7NEng
9726.1280.4Terr.
10610.8235.8MdAtl
11475.1183.4MdAtl
12417.0161.0MdAtl
1       Mid-Atlantic416.5160.8NEast
13364.6140.8SAtl
1345.5133.4USA
14295.5114.1Terr.
15285.5110.2MdAtl
16283.2109.3ENC
17246.195.0Pac
2233.290.0NEast
3       South Atlantic233.190.0South
18232.089.6ENC
19218.684.4Pac
20209.280.8SAtl
21202.678.2SAtl
4       East North Central192.174.2MWest
22183.470.8ENC
23175.067.6ENC
24173.767.1SAtl
25158.861.3SAtl
26157.560.8ESC
27147.857.1NEng
2136.352.6USA
28111.343.0ESC
29107.141.3WSC
30106.040.9ENC
5       East South Central105.040.5South
31104.940.5Pac
32103.140.8WSC
3395.436.9ESC
390.034.7USA
--89.534.6NAmer
6       West South Central89.134.4South
3487.933.9WNC
3577.129.8SAtl
3668.126.3WNC
3768.026.3NEng
3863.724.6ESC
3958.322.5Mtn
7       Pacific57.422.2West
4056.921.8WSC
4156.121.3WSC
4254.821.2WNC
4350.819.6Mtn
449.519.1USA
4443.116.6NEng
8       West North Central41.115.9MWest
4540.915.8Pac
4635.413.7WNC
4735.313.6Mtn
9       Mountain26.710.3West
4825.49.8Mtn
4924.39.4WNC
5019.57.5Mtn
5117.26.6Mtn
5211.14.3WNC
5310.54.0WNC
547.02.7Mtn
556.02.3Mtn
561.30.5Pac

## References

• Resident Population Data - 2010 Census. United States Census Bureau. Last accessed January 10, 2011.
• [1] 2015 List of Countries by Population Density [for territories]. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
1. ^ "Annual Estimates of the Population for the United States, Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015". 2015 Population Estimates. United States Census Bureau, Population Division. December 2015. Archived from the original (CSV) on December 23, 2015. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
2. ^ "List of Countries by Population Density, 2015". United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the World Bank. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
3. ^ "State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates". 2010 United States Census. United States Census Bureau. February 11, 2011. Archived from the original on March 16, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
4. ^ United Nations World Population Prospects Archived December 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
5. ^ Wiersdorf, G. William. "California Land Area". www.onlinecalifornia.us. Archived from the original on July 24, 2017.

## Media files used on this page

Flag of Guam.svg
The flag of Guam, courtesy an e-mail from the author of xrmap. Modifications by Denelson83.
Flag of the Northern Mariana Islands.svg
Author/Creator: unknown, Licence: CC0
Flag of Ohio.svg
The flag of the U.S. state of Ohio, officially known as the "Ohio Burgee"
Flag of California.svg
Flag of California. This version is designed to accurately depict the standard print of the bear as well as adhere to the official flag code regarding the size, position and proportion of the bear, the colors of the flag, and the position and size of the star.
Flag of Mississippi.svg
Author/Creator: Rocky Vaughn, Sue Anna Joe, Dominique Pugh, Clay Moss, Kara Giles, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Licence: Copyrighted free use
The state flag of Mississippi, created in 2020 and adopted in 2021. Known as the "New Magnolia", it was the final design selected by the Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag in 2020.
Flag of Oklahoma.svg
Flag of Oklahoma, adopted in November 2006.
Flag of Oregon.svg
Flag of Oregon (obverse): The flag was adopted by the state on February 26, 1925.[1] The state seal was decided in 1903.[2][3]
Flag of Utah.svg
Flag of Utah. Please do not revert to the "21:58, July 26, 2011" or any earlier version, as those versions are factually inaccurate.
Flag of the State of Nevada. The flag is described in Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 235, Sec. 20 as follows: The body of the flag must be of solid cobalt blue. On the field in the upper left quarter thereof must be two sprays of Sagebrush with the stems crossed at the bottom to form a half wreath. Within the sprays must be a five-pointed silver star with one point up. The word “Nevada” must also be inscribed below the star and above the sprays, in a semicircular pattern with the letters spaced apart in equal increments, in the same style of letters as the words “Battle Born.” Above the wreath, and touching the tips thereof, must be a scroll bearing the words “Battle Born.” The scroll and the word “Nevada” must be golden-yellow. The lettering on the scroll must be black-colored sans serif gothic capital letters.
Flag of New Mexico.svg
Author/Creator: unknown, Licence: CC0
Author/Creator: unknown, Licence: CC0
Flag of the United States.svg
Author/Creator: unknown, Licence: PD
North America (orthographic projection).svg
Author/Creator: Heraldry, Licence: CC-BY-SA-3.0
North America (orthographic projection)
Old San Juan Street, Puerto Rico 2007.jpg
Looking down one of Old San Juan's streets towards the bay.
Population Scaled US Map.svg
Author/Creator: Mliu92, Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0
This request originated from the Illustration workshop, and was solved mathematically using the data at the linked article. By definition, the population density is the population divided by area, or:
${\displaystyle d_{pop}\equiv {\frac {P}{A}}}$ or, equivalently, ${\displaystyle {P}=d_{pop}\cdot A}$

We want to resize each state according to its population, so each state's new area will be defined by a new (constant) population density, ${\displaystyle d_{pop,n}}$:

${\displaystyle A_{new}={\frac {P}{d_{pop,n}}}}$

We can substitute for ${\displaystyle P}$ in the above expression to get:

${\displaystyle A_{new}={\frac {P}{d_{pop,n}}}={\frac {\left(d_{pop}\cdot A\right)}{d_{pop,n}}}=A\cdot \left({\frac {d_{pop}}{d_{pop,n}}}\right)}$

This means the new area ${\displaystyle A_{new}}$ is simply the existing area ${\displaystyle A}$ multiplied by an areal scaling factor ${\displaystyle \left({\frac {d_{pop}}{d_{pop,n}}}\right)}$. Since area is the product of two dimensions, we can apply an equal scaling factor in each dimension (which is what the SVG expects) by taking the square root of the areal scaling factor:

${\displaystyle S_{x,y}={\sqrt {\frac {d_{pop}}{d_{pop,n}}}}}$

I took the new population density to be equal to the 2013 population density of New Jersey, 1,210.1 persons per square mile, which in essence normalizes the scaling factor to New Jersey. For instance, California has a 2013 population density of 246.1 persons per square mile, so:

${\displaystyle S_{x,y}^{CA}={\sqrt {\frac {d_{pop}}{d_{pop,n}}}}={\sqrt {\frac {246.1}{1210.1}}}=0.451}$
That means that I apply a scaling transformation factor of 0.451 to the California SVG object in each (x,y) dimension. When all is said and done, though, I had to end up translating most of the state SVG objects as well, so it ended up being a matrix transform (scaling + translation). When the population and/or land areas update, the updated data could be used to adjust the scaling factors in the SVG directly without having to go through a graphical editor.
Anchorage1.jpg
Author/Creator: unknown, Licence: Copyrighted free use