From nearly empty to packed tight
The same 3,144 counties, redrawn at three different population-density cutoffs. Watch how little land it takes to hold most of the country — and how much land holds almost no one.
Read left to right and the story flips entirely. Under 10 people per square mile covers nearly half the country's land and barely over 1% of its people. At the other end, the handful of counties denser than 1,000 people per square mile — a historical Census Bureau line for "urban" — hold 40% of the population on under 2% of the land.
Same country, same population, wildly different pictures depending purely on which slice of density you choose to draw.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2023 Population Estimates (county totals) and 2023 Gazetteer Files (land area). County boundaries: US Census via us-atlas. Puerto Rico excluded — not covered by this population estimates release.