Map reimagines US states by population and it completely changes how we see America

When we think of the biggest states in the United States, names like Alaska come to mind. However, when it comes to the population density ratio, the picture is quite the contrary. A new analysis on the scaling of each state, showing how America’s population has been spreading out over the years, was recently published by Visual Capitalist. The outlet relied on data from the 2024 Census Bureau to reimagine the US map while keeping the number of inhabitants in each state intact. The states with the greatest number of people that emerged from this report include California, Texas and, surprisingly, Florida.

California, famous for technological advancement, particularly Silicon Valley and its natural wonders, has attracted the maximum number of people, according to the latest analysis. By welcoming around 39.4 million inhabitants into its fold, the Golden State was deemed the biggest in terms of population. Despite California being the third-largest in size, it managed to outsize Alaska and Texas, as pointed out in the data. Among the nearly 340 million US population, the second-largest state, Texas, housed 31.3 million residents. This indicates the people of America prefer geographically rich states with a diverse landscape.

Moreover, the latest analysis found that California is home to one in ten Americans on the West Coast, likely drawn in by the state’s rich cultural variety and sunny environment, as reported by My Modern Met. The third to join the most populous list of states included Florida, famous for its beaches, warm climate and amusement parks. At least 23.4 million people, i.e., 6.88% of the total US population, preferred living in The Sunshine State, per the latest map, reshared by Geopolitical Guy (@geopolitical.guy on Instagram). Overall, the three most populous states in the analysis comprised 94.1 million, which is 27.67% of the total US population in the 2024 Census Bureau data.

The surprising part of Visual Capitalist’s assessment was that, despite being the largest state by land area, Alaska ranked third lowest. With a population of approximately 700,000 people and a total land area of 665,384 square miles, its population density was just 1.05 people per square mile, per the 2024 Census data. This resulted in the usually vast state, infamous for its harsh living conditions and rugged terrain, being represented by a small yellow box on the outlet’s map. Similarly, some other large states by land area appeared much smaller in the reimagined illustration of the US map. These included states like Wyoming, the Dakotas and Montana, together housing fewer than four million residents.

The comparatively low population in these states was largely due to vast areas being covered by parks and farmland, per the outlet. Meanwhile, Vermont and Wyoming both had the smallest populations, with just 600,000 people each. With 8.5 million inhabitants, New York City interestingly had a population greater than 38 whole states combined, according to the census. The motive behind Visual Capitalist’s reimagining of the US map was to explore how populations influence votes, like rural areas of the country. These places with low populations had "outsized political influence" because of the Electoral College or the Senate's structure. Moreover, when urban-populated areas lean toward one side politically and rural-populated areas lean toward another side, the gap that comes in between "population-based representation and geographic-based influence is even more pronounced," per the outlet.