Animated map of population density in the U.S. Currently, the three most populous states in the US are California (39.5m), Texas (28.3m), and Florida (21m).Īt present, the population’s median center continues to move to the southwest slowly (2.57 miles per year). After 100 years, the population of California increased by 504% to 39.9 million. So in 1917, only 3.1 million people lived in California. But over the past century, the distribution of the population in the nation has changed dramatically. There are two basic types: one-to-one dot density maps (one. Dot density maps have been popular for 150 years because they are easy to understand and, at a glance, show us intuitively where things clump or cluster. Until the 20th century, the eastern states remained the most populous. Dot density maps are a simple yet highly effective way to show density differences in geographic distributions across a landscape. Throughout the nineteenth century, more than one square mile (1.6 million km2) of land west of the Mississippi River was obtained by the federal government. The map below shows when each state reached its highest point as percentage of the U.S.
Populations for intermediate years were interpolated by cubic splines to log-density essentially, that means that it assumes a smooth change in the rate of growth for each county over time. The animated map of population density, made using Jonathan Schroeder’s county-level decadal estimates. Reddit user: NelsonMinar Animated map of population density in the U.S. As a result, many indigenous peoples died from disease than in war with Europeans. In that time, many deadly diseases evolved in the Old World (smallpox, the plague, measles). The Americas’ peoples had no resistance to Europeans’ diseases because the Americas’ populations had been primarily isolated from Europe. Most of the indigenous tribes of America lived along the rivers and on the coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
But beginning in the 19th century, archaeology and the research of burials and the material remains of society helped determine native populations before European contact.Īpproximations for North America have ranged from 3.8 million to 18 million. Most indigenous people lived in small communities. It isn’t easy to evaluate populations in the 15th century in America. Population density map of what is now the United States (1492) But during the country’s history, these numbers haven’t stayed fixed. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.Īt the moment, about 328 million people are living in the U.S, a nation that’s 9.84 million sq km (3.53 million square miles).