Rankings · Place

Lowest population density by state

People per square mile of land.

This measure has no better end. The order describes the states, it does not rank them — see the other direction.

Population divided by land area. The single clearest measure of how a place feels day to day — more so than population, which tells you how many people share a boundary without saying how far apart they are. Ranges across four orders of magnitude, from under one person per square mile across the Alaskan interior and the Great Plains to tens of thousands in the dense boroughs.

  1. 1Alaska1.3
  2. 2Wyoming6.0
  3. 3Montana7.7
  4. 4North Dakota11.4
  5. 5South Dakota12.0
  6. 6New Mexico17.5
  7. 7Idaho23.4
  8. 8Nebraska25.8
  9. 9Nevada29.0
  10. 10Kansas36.0
  11. 11Utah41.1
  12. 12Oregon44.3
  13. 13Maine45.0
  14. 14Colorado56.6
  15. 15Iowa57.5
  16. 16Arkansas58.7
  17. 17Oklahoma58.7
  18. 18Mississippi62.8
  19. 19Arizona64.9
  20. 20Vermont70.2
  21. 21Minnesota72.1
  22. 22West Virginia74.0
  23. 23Missouri90.1
  24. 24Alabama100.0
  25. 25Louisiana107.0
  26. 26Wisconsin109.0
  27. 27Kentucky115.0
  28. 28Texas116.0
  29. 29Washington118.0
  30. 30New Hampshire156.0
  31. 31Tennessee171.0
  32. 32South Carolina176.0
  33. 33Michigan178.0
  34. 34Georgia190.0
  35. 35Indiana191.0
  36. 36North Carolina221.0
  37. 37Virginia221.0
  38. 38Hawaii225.0
  39. 39Illinois229.0
  40. 40California252.0
  41. 41Ohio289.0
  42. 42Pennsylvania291.0
  43. 43Florida418.0
  44. 44New York421.0
  45. 45Delaware524.0
  46. 46Maryland639.0
  47. 47Connecticut749.0
  48. 48Massachusetts903.0
  49. 49Rhode Island1067.0
  50. 50New Jersey1271.0
  51. 51District of Columbia11169.0
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<iframe src="https://movermath.com/embed/population-density" width="100%" height="420" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="People per square mile of land by state"></iframe>

Source: U.S. Census Bureau. · How this is built