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Rankings · Place
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.
Alaska has the lowest published population density in this comparison, at 1.3. The next states shown are Wyoming (6.0) and Montana (7.7).
The table orders 51 states by people per square mile of land. It describes one published measure, not an overall judgment about where to live.
Use the result as a starting point, then compare the underlying source, dates, and local county figures before making a decision. 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.
Free to use. The chart names its source and links back, so it stays honest wherever it ends up.
<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