Mapped: Every U.S. State, Resized Based on Population

Pallavi Rao
2025-02-18 08:11:00
www.visualcapitalist.com

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

Mapped: U.S. States Resized by Their Populations

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The U.S. is the world’s fourth-largest country by total area, third by land area, and is home to around 340 million people.

But nearly one-third of those people live in just three states: California, Texas, and New York.

This graphic reimagines the usual U.S. map with the states resized based on their populations. Data is from the Census Bureau, as of 2024.

Alaska Isn’t the Largest Anymore

If sized by population, Alaska would be the third-smallest state (fourth if counting D.C.) in the country.

This is a far cry from its top of the rankings as America’s largest state by area (665,284 sq. miles).

Rank	States	State Code	Population (2024)
1	California	CA	39.4M
2	Texas	TX	31.3M
3	Florida	FL	23.4M
4	New York	NY	19.9M
5	Pennsylvania	PA	13.1M
6	Illinois	IL	12.7M
7	Ohio	OH	11.9M
8	Georgia	GA	11.2M
9	North Carolina	NC	11.0M
10	Michigan	MI	10.1M
11	New Jersey	NJ	9.5M
12	Virginia	VA	8.8M
13	Washington	WA	8.0M
14	Arizona	AZ	7.6M
15	Tennessee	TN	7.2M
16	Massachusetts	MA	7.1M
17	Indiana	IN	6.9M
18	Maryland	MD	6.3M
19	Missouri	MO	6.2M
20	Wisconsin	WI	6.0M
21	Colorado	CO	6.0M
22	Minnesota	MN	5.8M
23	South Carolina	SC	5.5M
24	Alabama	AL	5.2M
25	Louisiana	LA	4.6M
26	Kentucky	KY	4.6M
27	Oregon	OR	4.3M
28	Oklahoma	OK	4.1M
29	Connecticut	CT	3.7M
30	Utah	UT	3.5M
31	Nevada	NV	3.3M
32	Iowa	IA	3.2M
33	Arkansas	AR	3.1M
34	Kansas	KS	3.0M
35	Mississippi	MS	2.9M
36	New Mexico	NM	2.1M
37	Nebraska	NE	2.0M
38	Idaho	ID	2.0M
39	West Virginia	WV	1.8M
40	Hawaii	HI	1.4M
41	New Hampshire	NH	1.4M
42	Maine	ME	1.4M
43	Montana	MT	1.1M
44	Rhode Island	RI	1.1M
45	Delaware	DE	1.1M
46	South Dakota	SD	0.9M
47	North Dakota	ND	0.8M
48	Alaska	AK	0.7M
49	District of Columbia	DC	0.7M
50	Vermont	VT	0.6M
51	Wyoming	WY	0.6M
N/A	U.S.	USA	340.1M

Note: Population figures are from July 1st, 2024.

On the other hand, a big gainer from putting people in perspective is Florida which is 22nd by size, but third by population.

The benefit of redrawing the map with population in mind, is that it’s easier to see where people actually live.

Several big states towards the west of the country, (Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana) are actually home to less than four million people collectively. Most of the land is taken up by parks and farmland.

In fact New York City alone has more people (8.5 million) than 38 states.

Land Doesn’t Vote, People Do

This redrawing is also particularly useful in the context of the U.S. specifically.

Rural areas with low populations can sometimes have outsized political influence due to structures like the Electoral College or the Senate.

And when densely populated urban areas often lean one way politically, and sparsely populated rural regions lean another, then the gap between population-based representation and geographic-based influence is even more pronounced.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

Not only is Texas the second-most populous state, it’s gaining people from the rest of the country. Check out: Net Migration Between States to see how many moved people to the Lone Star State in 2023.

The post Mapped: Every U.S. State, Resized Based on Population appeared first on Visual Capitalist.

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