Below, we’ve included the most populous states, as reported by the U.S. California has the largest population in the United States, followed by Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania. In the table below, all US states are sorted by population, from largest to smallest. Would you like to know how these states were ranked? Read on to learn more about our methodology and why Americans love to live in each of our top ten.
Areas with a population of up to 300 are classified as villages, and Mississippi has one called Satartia with just 55 inhabitants. Given this population and land mass, Kansas population density, which is almost half the national average, should come as no surprise. The Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area in Seattle has a population of 3.73 million, which accounts for more than half of Washington’s population. North Dakota’s only city with more than 100,000 inhabitants is Fargo, home to over 15% of the state’s entire population.
This division is based on each state’s population as a share of the total population of the fifty states (excluding the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands). The only area that is more densely populated is the District of Columbia, which is not technically a state. This is important for citizens of different states, as the population determines how much representation a state gets in the federal government (and thus affects the funding of programs and initiatives). Its population density is the third smallest in the country, with a shocking three people per square mile.
At 68,667 square miles, Oklahoma is the 19th largest state in land area, and for every square mile in the state, there are an average of 55 people. Manchester is the largest city in the state, and with a population of 111,826 it is also the largest city in northern New England. A small number of the population live in rural areas, and Nevada’s rural culture is incredibly different from that of metropolitan areas like Reno and Las Vegas. King and Pierce, with municipalities of 2,188,649 and 876,764 people, are the most populous counties in the state. The New Jersey area is heavily used with an incredibly high population density of 1213 people per square mile, making it the most densely populated state in the United States.
Although Memphis is the largest city, Nashville has a metropolitan area of 1,757,912 inhabitants, compared to the Memphis metropolitan area population of 1,341,746. Jacksonville alone has a population of over 900,000 people, which is more than the population of Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
