This article includes a sortable table of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and territories ordered by population density. Population density is calculated as resident population divided by total land area. Resident population is from the United States Census Bureau estimates for July 1, 2011, and total land area is also from the Census Bureau.
The population density of the United States is relatively low compared to many other developed countries. For example, the population density of the U.S. is one twelfth that of the Netherlands, and one fifteenth that of South Korea (as of 2010).
| Rank | State | Population density (2011) |
|---|---|---|
| -- | District of Columbia | 10,065 inhabitants per square mile (3,886 /km2) |
| 01 | New Jersey | 1,189 inhabitants per square mile (459 /km2) |
| -- | Puerto Rico | 1,082 inhabitants per square mile (418 /km2) |
| 02 | Rhode Island | 1,006 inhabitants per square mile (388 /km2) |
| -- | U.S. Virgin Islands | 916.9 inhabitants per square mile (354.0 /km2) |
| -- | American Samoa | 914.0 inhabitants per square mile (352.9 /km2) |
| 03 | Massachusetts | 840.2 inhabitants per square mile (324.4 /km2) |
| -- | Guam | 830.0 inhabitants per square mile (320.5 /km2) |
| 04 | Connecticut | 739.1 inhabitants per square mile (285.4 /km2) |
| 05 | Maryland | 596.3 inhabitants per square mile (230.2 /km2) |
| 06 | Delaware | 464.3 inhabitants per square mile (179.3 /km2) |
| 07 | New York | 412.3 inhabitants per square mile (159.2 /km2) |
| 08 | Florida | 353.4 inhabitants per square mile (136.4 /km2) |
| 09 | Pennsylvania | 284.3 inhabitants per square mile (109.8 /km2) |
| 10 | Ohio | 281.9 inhabitants per square mile (108.8 /km2) |
| 11 | California | 241.7 inhabitants per square mile (93.3 /km2) |
| 12 | Illinois | 231.5 inhabitants per square mile (89.4 /km2) |
| 13 | Hawaii | 214.1 inhabitants per square mile (82.7 /km2) |
| 14 | Virginia | 204.5 inhabitants per square mile (79.0 /km2) |
| 15 | North Carolina | 198.2 inhabitants per square mile (76.5 /km2) |
| 16 | Indiana | 181.7 inhabitants per square mile (70.2 /km2) |
| 17 | Michigan | 173.9 inhabitants per square mile (67.1 /km2) |
| 18 | Georgia | 169.5 inhabitants per square mile (65.4 /km2) |
| 19 | South Carolina | 155.4 inhabitants per square mile (60.0 /km2) |
| 20 | Tennessee | 155.4 inhabitants per square mile (60.0 /km2) |
| 21 | New Hampshire | 147.0 inhabitants per square mile (56.8 /km2) |
| 22 | Kentucky | 110.0 inhabitants per square mile (42.5 /km2) |
| 23 | Wisconsin | 105.2 inhabitants per square mile (40.6 /km2) |
| 24 | Louisiana | 105.0 inhabitants per square mile (40.5 /km2) |
| 25 | Washington | 102.6 inhabitants per square mile (39.6 /km2) |
| 26 | Texas | 98.07 inhabitants per square mile (37.87 /km2) |
| 27 | Alabama | 94.65 inhabitants per square mile (36.54 /km2) |
| U.S. Average* | 88.08 inhabitants per square mile (34.01 /km2) | |
| 28 | Missouri | 87.26 inhabitants per square mile (33.69 /km2) |
| 29 | West Virginia | 77.06 inhabitants per square mile (29.75 /km2) |
| 30 | Vermont | 67.73 inhabitants per square mile (26.15 /km2) |
| 31 | Minnesota | 67.14 inhabitants per square mile (25.92 /km2) |
| -- | Northern Mariana Islands | 63.8 inhabitants per square mile (24.6 /km2) |
| 32 | Mississippi | 63.50 inhabitants per square mile (24.52 /km2) |
| 33 | Arizona | 57.05 inhabitants per square mile (22.03 /km2) |
| 34 | Arkansas | 56.43 inhabitants per square mile (21.79 /km2) |
| 35 | Oklahoma | 55.22 inhabitants per square mile (21.32 /km2) |
| 36 | Iowa | 54.81 inhabitants per square mile (21.16 /km2) |
| 37 | Colorado | 49.33 inhabitants per square mile (19.05 /km2) |
| 38 | Maine | 43.04 inhabitants per square mile (16.62 /km2) |
| 39 | Oregon | 40.33 inhabitants per square mile (15.57 /km2) |
| 40 | Kansas | 35.09 inhabitants per square mile (13.55 /km2) |
| 41 | Utah | 34.30 inhabitants per square mile (13.24 /km2) |
| 42 | Nevada | 24.80 inhabitants per square mile (9.58 /km2) |
| 43 | Nebraska | 23.97 inhabitants per square mile (9.25 /km2) |
| 44 | Idaho | 19.15 inhabitants per square mile (7.39 /km2) |
| 45 | New Mexico | 17.16 inhabitants per square mile (6.63 /km2) |
| 46 | South Dakota | 10.86 inhabitants per square mile (4.19 /km2) |
| 47 | North Dakota | 9.916 inhabitants per square mile (3.829 /km2) |
| 48 | Montana | 6.858 inhabitants per square mile (2.648 /km2) |
| 49 | Wyoming | 5.851 inhabitants per square mile (2.259 /km2) |
| 50 | Alaska | 1.264 inhabitants per square mile (0.488 /km2) |
*Does not include territories
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, states and/or population:
“Do your children view themselves as successes or failures? Are they being encouraged to be inquisitive or passive? Are they afraid to challenge authority and to question assumptions? Do they feel comfortable adapting to change? Are they easily discouraged if they cannot arrive at a solution to a problem? The answers to those questions will give you a better appraisal of their education than any list of courses, grades, or test scores.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“Lastly, his tomb
Shall list and founder in the troughs of grass
And none shall speak his name.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)
“The people of the United States have been fortunate in many things. One of the things in which we have been most fortunate has been that so far, due perhaps to certain basic virtues in our traditional ways of doing things, we have managed to keep the crisis of western civilization, which has devastated the rest of the world and in which we are as much involved as anybody, more or less at arm’s length.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most. The power which the sea requires in the sailor makes a man of him very fast, and the change of shores and population clears his head of much nonsense of his wigwam.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)