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Historical Population Density Data (1910-2020)

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Historical Population Density Data (1910-2020)

April 26, 2021

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Population density is a measure of average population per square mile. Density levels have been higher across the Eastern seaboard and the Pacific coastline and lower in much of the West.

Area	2020	2010	2000	1990	1980	1970	1960	1950	1940	1930	1920	1910
X Not applicable. ¹ Includes the resident population of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as ascertained by the Decennial Census. Note: Population density is a measure of the average population per square mile of land. Density rankings 1 to 52 include the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
United States¹
Resident Population	331,449,281	308,745,538	281,421,906	248,709,873	226,545,805	203,211,926	179,323,175	151,325,798	132,165,129	123,202,660	106,021,568	92,228,531
Population Density	93.8	87.4	79.7	70.4	64.1	57.5	50.6	42.6	37.2	34.7	29.9	26.0
Density Rank	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Alabama
Resident Population	5,024,279	4,779,736	4,447,100	4,040,587	3,893,888	3,444,165	3,266,740	3,061,743	2,832,961	2,646,248	2,348,174	2,138,093
Population Density	99.2	94.4	87.8	79.8	76.9	68.0	64.5	60.5	55.9	52.3	46.4	42.2
Density Rank	29	29	28	27	28	28	28	24	23	24	25	25
Alaska
Resident Population	733,391	710,231	626,932	550,043	401,851	300,382	226,167	128,643	72,524	59,278	55,036	64,356
Population Density	1.3	1.2	1.1	1.0	0.7	0.5	0.4	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Density Rank	52	52	52	52	52	52	52	52	52	52	52	52
Arizona
Resident Population	7,151,502	6,392,017	5,130,632	3,665,228	2,718,215	1,770,900	1,302,161	749,587	499,261	435,573	334,162	204,354
Population Density	62.9	56.3	45.2	32.3	23.9	15.6	11.5	6.6	4.4	3.8	2.9	1.8
Density Rank	35	35	38	39	42	43	43	47	47	47	49	49
Arkansas
Resident Population	3,011,524	2,915,918	2,673,400	2,350,725	2,286,435	1,923,295	1,786,272	1,909,511	1,949,387	1,854,482	1,752,204	1,574,449
Population Density	57.9	56.0	51.4	45.2	43.9	37.0	34.3	36.7	37.5	35.6	33.7	30.3
Density Rank	36	36	36	37	37	37	36	34	32	32	31	30
California
Resident Population	39,538,223	37,253,956	33,871,648	29,760,021	23,667,902	19,953,134	15,717,204	10,586,223	6,907,387	5,677,251	3,426,861	2,377,549
Population Density	253.7	239.1	217.4	191.0	151.9	128.1	100.9	68.0	44.3	36.4	22.0	15.3
Density Rank	13	13	14	14	16	15	15	22	30	31	35	38
Colorado
Resident Population	5,773,714	5,029,196	4,301,261	3,294,394	2,889,964	2,207,259	1,753,947	1,325,089	1,123,296	1,035,791	939,629	799,024
Population Density	55.7	48.5	41.5	31.8	27.9	21.3	16.9	12.8	10.8	10.0	9.1	7.7
Density Rank	39	39	39	40	40	41	42	42	42	41	42	42
Connecticut
Resident Population	3,605,944	3,574,097	3,405,565	3,287,116	3,107,576	3,031,709	2,535,234	2,007,280	1,709,242	1,606,903	1,380,631	1,114,756
Population Density	744.7	738.1	703.3	678.8	641.7	626.1	523.6	414.5	353.0	331.8	285.1	230.2
Density Rank	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Delaware
Resident Population	989,948	897,934	783,600	666,168	594,338	548,104	446,292	318,085	266,505	238,380	223,003	202,322
Population Density	508.0	460.8	402.1	341.9	305.0	281.3	229.0	163.2	136.8	122.3	114.4	103.8
Density Rank	8	8	9	9	9	9	11	11	12	12	12	11
District of Columbia
Resident Population	689,545	601,723	572,059	606,900	638,333	756,510	763,956	802,178	663,091	486,869	437,571	331,069
Population Density	11,280.0	9,856.5	9,370.6	9,941.3	10,456.2	12,392.0	12,513.9	13,140.0	10,861.7	7,975.1	7,167.6	5,423.1
Density Rank	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Florida
Resident Population	21,538,187	18,801,310	15,982,378	12,937,926	9,746,324	6,789,443	4,951,560	2,771,305	1,897,414	1,468,211	968,470	752,619
Population Density	401.4	350.6	298.0	241.3	181.8	126.6	92.3	51.7	35.4	27.4	18.1	14.0
>Density Rank	10	10	10	12	13	16	19	29	33	35	38	40
Georgia
Resident Population	10,711,908	9,687,653	8,186,453	6,478,216	5,463,105	4,589,575	3,943,116	3,444,578	3,123,723	2,908,506	2,895,832	2,609,121
Population Density	185.6	168.4	142.3	112.6	95.0	79.8	68.6	59.9	54.3	50.6	50.4	45.4
Density Rank	19	20	20	23	24	26	26	27	27	26	21	23
Hawaii
Resident Population	1,455,271	1,360,301	1,211,537	1,108,229	964,691	768,561	632,772	499,794	423,330	368,336	255,912	191,909
Population Density	226.6	211.8	188.6	172.6	150.2	119.7	98.5	77.8	65.9	57.3	39.8	29.9
Density Rank	15	15	15	15	17	17	17	19	20	21	28	31
Idaho
Resident Population	1,839,106	1,567,582	1,293,953	1,006,749	943,935	712,567	667,191	588,637	524,873	445,032	431,866	325,594
Population Density	22.3	19.0	15.7	12.2	11.4	8.6	8.1	7.1	6.4	5.4	5.2	3.9
Density Rank	46	46	46	46	45	47	47	46	46	46	46	46
Illinois
Resident Population	12,812,508	12,830,632	12,419,293	11,430,602	11,426,518	11,113,976	10,081,158	8,712,176	7,897,241	7,630,654	6,485,280	5,638,591
Population Density	230.8	231.1	223.7	205.9	205.8	200.2	181.6	156.9	142.2	137.4	116.8	101.6
Density Rank	14	14	13	13	12	12	12	12	11	11	11	12
Indiana
Resident Population	6,785,528	6,483,802	6,080,485	5,544,159	5,490,224	5,193,669	4,662,498	3,934,224	3,427,796	3,238,503	2,930,390	2,700,876
Population Density	189.4	181.0	169.7	154.8	153.2	145.0	130.1	109.8	95.7	90.4	81.8	75.4
Density Rank	18	18	18	18	15	14	14	14	13	13	13	13
Iowa
Resident Population	3,190,369	3,046,355	2,926,324	2,776,755	2,913,808	2,824,376	2,757,537	2,621,073	2,538,268	2,470,939	2,404,021	2,224,771
Population Density	57.1	54.5	52.4	49.7	52.2	50.6	49.4	46.9	45.4	44.2	43.0	39.8
Density Rank	38	38	35	35	34	31	30	30	29	28	26	26
Kansas
Resident Population	2,937,880	2,853,118	2,688,418	2,477,574	2,363,679	2,246,578	2,178,611	1,905,299	1,801,028	1,880,999	1,769,257	1,690,949
Population Density	35.9	34.9	32.9	30.3	28.9	27.5	26.6	23.3	22.0	23.0	21.6	20.7
Density Rank	43	42	42	41	39	39	39	39	39	38	36	35
Kentucky
Resident Population	4,505,836	4,339,367	4,041,769	3,685,296	3,660,777	3,218,706	3,038,156	2,944,806	2,845,627	2,614,589	2,416,630	2,289,905
Population Density	114.1	109.9	102.4	93.3	92.7	81.5	76.9	74.6	72.1	66.2	61.2	58.0
Density Rank	25	24	25	25	25	25	23	20	17	16	15	14
Louisiana
Resident Population	4,657,757	4,533,372	4,468,976	4,219,973	4,205,900	3,641,306	3,257,022	2,683,516	2,363,880	2,101,593	1,798,509	1,656,388
Population Density	107.8	104.9	103.4	97.7	97.3	84.3	75.4	62.1	54.7	48.6	41.6	38.3
Density Rank	28	26	24	24	23	22	24	25	26	27	27	29
Maine
Resident Population	1,362,359	1,328,361	1,274,923	1,227,928	1,124,660	992,048	969,265	913,774	847,226	797,423	768,014	742,371
Population Density	44.2	43.1	41.3	39.8	36.5	32.2	31.4	29.6	27.5	25.9	24.9	24.1
Density Rank	40	40	40	38	38	38	38	37	36	36	34	33
Maryland
Resident Population	6,177,224	5,773,552	5,296,486	4,781,468	4,216,975	3,922,399	3,100,689	2,343,001	1,821,244	1,631,526	1,449,661	1,295,346
Population Density	636.1	594.8	545.6	492.6	434.4	404.1	319.4	241.4	187.6	168.1	149.3	133.4
Density Rank	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	9	9	9	9
Massachusetts
Resident Population	7,029,917	6,547,629	6,349,097	6,016,425	5,737,037	5,689,170	5,148,578	4,690,514	4,316,721	4,249,614	3,852,356	3,366,416
Population Density	901.2	839.4	814.0	771.3	735.5	729.4	660.1	601.3	553.4	544.8	493.9	431.6
Density Rank	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	4	3	3
Michigan
Resident Population	10,077,331	9,883,640	9,938,444	9,295,297	9,262,078	8,875,083	7,823,194	6,371,766	5,256,106	4,842,325	3,668,412	2,810,173
Population Density	178.0	174.8	175.8	164.4	163.8	157.0	138.4	112.7	93.0	85.6	64.9	49.7
Density Rank	20	19	17	16	14	13	13	13	14	14	14	19
Minnesota
Resident Population	5,706,494	5,303,925	4,919,479	4,375,099	4,075,970	3,804,971	3,413,864	2,982,483	2,792,300	2,563,953	2,387,125	2,075,708
Population Density	71.7	66.6	61.8	54.9	51.2	47.8	42.9	37.5	35.1	32.2	30.0	26.1
Density Rank	32	33	33	33	35	33	32	33	34	34	32	32
Mississippi
Resident Population	2,961,279	2,967,297	2,844,658	2,573,216	2,520,638	2,216,912	2,178,141	2,178,914	2,183,796	2,009,821	1,790,618	1,797,114
Population Density	63.1	63.2	60.6	54.8	53.7	47.2	46.4	46.4	46.5	42.8	38.2	38.3
Density Rank	34	34	34	34	33	34	31	31	28	29	29	28
Missouri
Resident Population	6,154,913	5,988,927	5,595,211	5,117,073	4,916,686	4,676,501	4,319,813	3,954,653	3,784,664	3,629,367	3,404,055	3,293,335
Population Density	89.5	87.1	81.4	74.4	71.5	68.0	62.8	57.5	55.1	52.8	49.5	47.9
Density Rank	30	30	29	29	29	28	29	28	24	23	22	21
Montana
Resident Population	1,084,225	989,415	902,195	799,065	786,690	694,409	674,767	591,024	559,456	537,606	548,889	376,053
Population Density	7.4	6.8	6.2	5.5	5.4	4.8	4.6	4.1	3.8	3.7	3.8	2.6
Density Rank	50	50	50	50	50	49	49	49	49	48	47	48
Nebraska
Resident Population	1,961,504	1,826,341	1,711,263	1,578,385	1,569,825	1,483,493	1,411,330	1,325,510	1,315,834	1,377,963	1,296,372	1,192,214
Population Density	25.5	23.8	22.3	20.5	20.4	19.3	18.4	17.3	17.1	17.9	16.9	15.5
Density Rank	45	45	44	44	43	42	40	40	40	40	40	37
Nevada
Resident Population	3,104,614	2,700,551	1,998,257	1,201,833	800,493	488,738	285,278	160,083	110,247	91,058	77,407	81,875
Population Density	28.3	24.6	18.2	10.9	7.3	4.5	2.6	1.5	1.0	0.8	0.7	0.7
Density Rank	44	44	45	47	49	50	51	51	51	51	51	51
New Hampshire
Resident Population	1,377,529	1,316,470	1,235,786	1,109,252	920,610	737,681	606,921	533,242	491,524	465,293	443,083	430,572
Population Density	153.8	147.0	138.0	123.9	102.8	82.4	67.8	59.6	54.9	52.0	49.5	48.1
Density Rank	23	23	22	20	22	23	27	26	25	25	22	20
New Jersey
Resident Population	9,288,994	8,791,894	8,414,350	7,730,188	7,364,823	7,168,164	6,066,782	4,835,329	4,160,165	4,041,334	3,155,900	2,537,167
Population Density	1,263.0	1,195.5	1,144.2	1,051.1	1,001.4	974.7	824.9	657.5	565.7	549.5	429.1	345.0
Density Rank	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	4	3	3	4	4
New Mexico
Resident Population	2,117,522	2,059,179	1,819,046	1,515,069	1,302,894	1,016,000	951,023	681,187	531,818	423,317	360,350	327,301
Population Density	17.5	17.0	15.0	12.5	10.7	8.4	7.8	5.6	4.4	3.5	3.0	2.7
Density Rank	47	47	47	45	46	48	48	48	47	49	48	47
New York
Resident Population	20,201,249	19,378,102	18,976,457	17,990,455	17,558,072	18,236,967	16,782,304	14,830,192	13,479,142	12,588,066	10,385,227	9,113,614
Population Density	428.7	411.2	402.7	381.7	372.6	387.0	356.1	314.7	286.0	267.1	220.4	193.4
Density Rank	9	9	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	7
North Carolina
Resident Population	10,439,388	9,535,483	8,049,313	6,628,637	5,881,766	5,082,059	4,556,155	4,061,929	3,571,623	3,170,276	2,559,123	2,206,287
Population Density	214.7	196.1	165.6	136.3	121.0	104.5	93.7	83.5	73.5	65.2	52.6	45.4
Density Rank	17	17	19	19	19	19	18	17	16	17	20	22
North Dakota
Resident Population	779,094	672,591	642,200	638,800	652,717	617,761	632,446	619,636	641,935	680,845	646,872	577,056
Population Density	11.3	9.7	9.3	9.3	9.5	9.0	9.2	9.0	9.3	9.9	9.4	8.4
Density Rank	49	49	49	48	47	45	45	43	43	42	41	41
Ohio
Resident Population	11,799,448	11,536,504	11,353,140	10,847,115	10,797,630	10,652,017	9,706,397	7,946,627	6,907,612	6,646,697	5,759,394	4,767,121
Population Density	288.8	282.3	277.8	265.5	264.3	260.7	237.5	194.5	169.1	162.7	141.0	116.7
Density Rank	12	12	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	10	10	10
Oklahoma
Resident Population	3,959,353	3,751,351	3,450,654	3,145,585	3,025,290	2,559,229	2,328,284	2,233,351	2,336,434	2,396,040	2,028,283	1,657,155
Population Density	57.7	54.7	50.3	45.9	44.1	37.3	33.9	32.6	34.1	34.9	29.6	24.2
Density Rank	37	37	37	36	36	36	37	36	35	33	33	33
Oregon
Resident Population	4,237,256	3,831,074	3,421,399	2,842,321	2,633,105	2,091,385	1,768,687	1,521,341	1,089,684	953,786	783,389	672,765
Population Density	44.1	39.9	35.6	29.6	27.4	21.8	18.4	15.8	11.4	9.9	8.2	7.0
Density Rank	41	41	41	42	41	40	40	41	41	42	44	44
Pennsylvania
Resident Population	13,002,700	12,702,379	12,281,054	11,881,643	11,863,895	11,793,909	11,319,366	10,498,012	9,900,180	9,631,350	8,720,017	7,665,111
Population Density	290.6	283.9	274.5	265.6	265.2	263.6	253.0	234.6	221.3	215.3	194.9	171.3
Density Rank	11	11	12	10	10	10	9	9	8	8	8	8
Rhode Island
Resident Population	1,097,379	1,052,567	1,048,319	1,003,464	947,154	946,725	859,488	791,896	713,346	687,497	604,397	542,610
Population Density	1,061.4	1,018.1	1,014.0	970.6	916.2	915.8	831.4	766.0	690.0	665.0	584.6	524.9
Density Rank	3	4	4	4	4	3	2	3	2	2	2	2
South Carolina
Resident Population	5,118,425	4,625,364	4,012,012	3,486,703	3,121,820	2,590,516	2,382,594	2,117,027	1,899,804	1,738,765	1,683,724	1,515,400
Population Density	170.2	153.9	133.5	116.0	103.9	86.2	79.3	70.4	63.2	57.8	56.0	50.4
Density Rank	21	22	23	22	21	21	21	21	21	20	19	18
South Dakota
Resident Population	886,667	814,180	754,844	696,004	690,768	665,507	680,514	652,740	642,961	692,849	636,547	583,888
Population Density	11.7	10.7	10.0	9.2	9.1	8.8	9.0	8.6	8.5	9.1	8.4	7.7
Density Rank	48	48	48	49	48	46	46	44	44	44	43	42
Tennessee
Resident Population	6,910,840	6,346,105	5,689,283	4,877,185	4,591,120	3,923,687	3,567,089	3,291,718	2,915,841	2,616,556	2,337,885	2,184,789
Population Density	167.6	153.9	138.0	118.3	111.3	95.2	86.5	79.8	70.7	63.5	56.7	53.0
Density Rank	22	21	21	21	20	20	20	18	18	18	18	15
Texas
Resident Population	29,145,505	25,145,561	20,851,820	16,986,510	14,229,191	11,196,730	9,579,677	7,711,194	6,414,824	5,824,715	4,663,228	3,896,542
Population Density	111.6	96.3	79.8	65.0	54.5	42.9	36.7	29.5	24.6	22.3	17.9	14.9
Density Rank	26	28	30	31	32	35	35	38	38	39	39	39
Utah
Resident Population	3,271,616	2,763,885	2,233,169	1,722,850	1,461,037	1,059,273	890,627	688,862	550,310	507,847	449,396	373,351
Population Density	39.7	33.6	27.2	21.0	17.8	12.9	10.8	8.4	6.7	6.2	5.5	4.5
Density Rank	42	43	43	43	44	44	44	45	45	45	45	45
Vermont
Resident Population	643,077	625,741	608,827	562,758	511,456	444,330	389,881	377,747	359,231	359,611	352,428	355,956
Population Density	69.8	67.9	66.1	61.1	55.5	48.2	42.3	41.0	39.0	39.0	38.2	38.6
Density Rank	33	32	32	32	31	32	34	32	31	30	30	27
Virginia
Resident Population	8,631,393	8,001,024	7,078,515	6,187,358	5,346,818	4,648,494	3,966,949	3,318,680	2,677,773	2,421,851	2,309,187	2,061,612
Population Density	218.6	202.6	179.2	156.7	135.4	117.7	100.5	84.0	67.8	61.3	58.5	52.2
Density Rank	16	16	16	17	18	18	16	16	19	19	17	16
Washington
Resident Population	7,705,281	6,724,540	5,894,121	4,866,692	4,132,156	3,409,169	2,853,214	2,378,963	1,736,191	1,563,396	1,356,621	1,141,990
Population Density	115.9	101.2	88.7	73.2	62.2	51.3	42.9	35.8	26.1	23.5	20.4	17.2
Density Rank	24	27	27	30	30	30	32	35	37	37	37	36
West Virginia
Resident Population	1,793,716	1,852,994	1,808,344	1,793,477	1,949,644	1,744,237	1,860,421	2,005,552	1,901,974	1,729,205	1,463,701	1,221,119
Population Density	74.6	77.1	75.2	74.6	81.1	72.6	77.4	83.4	79.1	71.9	60.9	50.8
Density Rank	31	31	31	28	27	27	22	15	15	15	15	17
Wisconsin
Resident Population	5,893,718	5,686,986	5,363,675	4,891,769	4,705,767	4,417,731	3,951,777	3,434,575	3,137,587	2,939,006	2,632,067	2,333,860
Population Density	108.8	105.0	99.0	90.3	86.9	81.6	73.0	63.4	57.9	54.3	48.6	43.1
Density Rank	27	25	26	26	26	24	25	23	22	22	24	24
Wyoming
Resident Population	576,851	563,626	493,782	453,588	469,557	332,416	330,066	290,529	250,742	225,565	194,402	145,965
Population Density	5.9	5.8	5.1	4.7	4.8	3.4	3.4	3.0	2.6	2.3	2.0	1.5
Density Rank	51	51	51	51	51	51	50	50	50	50	50	50
Puerto Rico
Resident Population	3,285,874	3,725,789	3,808,610	3,522,037	3,196,520	2,712,033	2,349,544	2,210,703	1,869,255	1,543,913	1,299,809	1,118,012
Population Density	959.6	1,088.2	1,112.4	1,028.7	933.6	792.1	686.2	645.7	546.0	450.9	379.6	326.5
Density Rank	4	3	3	3	3	4	4	2	5	5	5	5