The US has the third-largest population in the world, but nearly a third of America’s 340 million residents live in just three states.
Using data from the Census Bureau, the data visualization company Visual Capitalist reimagined how the nation would look if states were resized by population.
Vermont and Wyoming are tied for the lowest populations in the US at just 600,000 residents each and reflecting the number of residents makes them so tiny, they can hardly be seen in the map.
And even though Alaska is the largest state by land area, stretching across more than 665,000 square miles, it has the third-smallest population at just 700,000 residents.
These states are dwarfed by California, Texas and Florida — the three most populous states in the US at 39.4 million, 31.3 million and 23.4 million residents, respectively.
Together, these three states account for a whopping 28 percent of the national population, and one in 10 Americans live in California.
New York is right behind them with a population of 19.9 million, much of which resides in New York City. The Big Apple alone is home to more people (8.5 million) than 38 states.
Several large states in the West appear smaller on this redrawn map due to their sparse populations, including New Mexico.
While these are some of the biggest states by area, most of that land is taken up by parks and farmland rather than densely populated communities.
This map is based on population figures as of July 1, 2024.
New Jersey would be much larger due to its population of 9.5 million, appearing bigger than other states like Virginia, Oregon and Idaho that have borders nearly triple the size.
North and South Dakota would dramatically shrink with their small populations that are under one million.
While North and South Carolina look similar in size on the current US map, the former would cover more land with its 11 million residents – South Carolina is home to half that many.
Wyoming and Montana would also take up less land with their 0.6 million and 1.1 million populations, along with New Mexico that has 2.1 million.
The US population grew by 3.3 million people, or roughly a one percent increase, from 2023 to 2024 — the biggest annual increase the country has seen since 2001.
According to the Census Bureau, the main driver of this growth was immigration into the US from other countries.
California is the most populous state in the US at 39.4 million residents, nearly 4 million of which live in Los Angeles alone
Immigration accounted for 84 percent of the nation’s population growth from 2023 to 2024, with 2.8 million people moving to the US that year.
The South is the most populous and fastest-growing region of the US.
This collection of states saw a population gain of 1.8 million people — about a 1.4 percent increase — between 2023 and 2024.
Thus, the South added more people than all other regions combined.
Wyoming is so tiny on the map you can hardly see it. This state is tied for the lowest population in the US, largely because a significant proportion of its land area is national parks or farms
Texas and Florida had the largest per capita gains of all southern states, adding more than 560,000 and 460,000 new residents, respectively.
The District of Columbia, which the Census considers to be its own state, grew the fastest (2.2 percent) between 2023 and 2024.
The population in the West grew by almost 688,000 people, or 0.9 percent.
California gained more than 230,000 new residents from 2023 to 2024, and Arizona gained nearly 110,000 — the largest per capita gains of all western states.
But Utah and Nevada grew the fastest, at increases of 1.8 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.
The Northeast grew 0.76 percent from 2023 to 2024, with an increase of almost 435,000 new residents.
What’s more, the number of people moving out of the Northeast to other parts of the country has continued to slow, as the region lost fewer residents through people moving away in 2024 than it did in 2023.
Within the Northeast, New York had the largest per capita population increase of nearly 130,000 people, but New Jersey had the fastest population growth of 1.3 percent.
In the Midwest, the population increased by over 410,000 people, or roughly 0.6 percent, in 2024.
Like in the Northeast, this region also had fewer people moving away to live in other parts of the US in 2024 than it did in 2023.
Illinois and Ohio had the biggest per capita population gains of nearly 68,000 and 60,000 people, respectively.
North Dakota and Nebraska grew the fastest, both increasing by roughly one percent.
Understanding the US in terms of state population size is a useful way to look at which parts of the country have the most political influence, according to Visual Capitalist.
For example, rural states with sparse populations can still have a big sway over presidential elections due to the Electoral College and the Senate.
And because more densely populated urban areas tend to lean left politically, while rural areas with low populations lean right, the gap between population-based representation and geographic based influence is stark, Visual Capitalist reported.
