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Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

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Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#21

Post by abentspoon »

nkoren wrote: post #18

North Dakota is the only clearly discernible state boundary. Anybody know why that is? Does something about the legal regime of North Dakota really change the settlement patterns that much? Or is it some kind of artefact of the way that ND census block are formed, compared to the surrounding states?

> Update: On a more detailed examination of those two states, I’m convinced the contrast here is due to differences in the sizes of the blocks. North Dakota’s blocks are more consistently small (StDev of 3.3) while South Dakota’s are more varied (StDev of 9.28). West of the Missouri River, South Dakota’s blocks are substantially larger than those in ND, so a single inhabitant can appear to take up more spaaaaaace. Between the states, this provides a good lesson in how changing the size and shape of a geographic unit can alter perceptions of the landscape.

Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#22

Post by cortesoft »

Windwaker wrote: post #11

Maybe I'm the only one, but is anyone else impressed about the amount of populated areas in the country? It makes me wonder how long we have until we start shoving each other into the oceans.

A long time. Even the populated areas could be a lot more dense, and we wouldn't have people pushing each other into the oceans.

Hong Kong has a density of 6,620 people per square km. If the US was that dense, we could fit the entire population (317 million) in about 48,000 square km (the US has close to 10 million square km)

Of course, we probably couldn't have that many people living in that dense an area. But we do have a long way to go before we are pushing each other into the ocean.

Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#23

Post by zhemao »

Windwaker wrote: post #11

Maybe I'm the only one, but is anyone else impressed about the amount of populated areas in the country? It makes me wonder how long we have until we start shoving each other into the oceans.

The chart only shows presence or absence of human settlement. Just because there are people there doesn't mean there are a lot of people there. Outside of big urban areas like SF, LA, NYC, and Chicago, the US isn't a particularly crowded place. I was born in Shanghai, China and went back to visit family about 4 years ago. I also lived in Manhattan for 3.5 years. Times Square cannot even compare to the absolute crush of humanity at Shanghai's Nanjing Street. Believe me, the US won't be filling up anytime soon.

Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#24

Post by mkr-hn »

ggchappell wrote: post #17

This is fascinating. Some of the big green areas are obvious: the Everglades, the forests of Maine, the awful stuff we call "Nevada". But what about the green blob on the Georgia-Florida border? And what's up with south Texas? Also, if you didn't catch the link, a fixed map: http://mapsbynik.com/maps/census0pop/census0pop-mapsbynik-re...

> But what about the green blob on the Georgia-Florida border?

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#25

Post by ggchappell »

nkoren wrote: post #20
ggchappell wrote: post #17

This is fascinating. Some of the big green areas are obvious: the Everglades, the forests of Maine, the awful stuff we call "Nevada". But what about the green blob on the Georgia-Florida border? And what's up with south Texas? Also, if you didn't catch the link, a fixed map: http://mapsbynik.com/maps/census0pop/census0pop-mapsbynik-re...

> But what about the green blob on the Georgia-Florida border? I was curious about that too. Apparently it's a very large swamp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okefenokee_Swamp > And what's up with south Texas? Have you been to south Texas?

> Have you been to south Texas?

Nope. And it appears that those who do go there, don't stay.

Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#26

Post by mpyne »

ggchappell wrote: post #17

This is fascinating. Some of the big green areas are obvious: the Everglades, the forests of Maine, the awful stuff we call "Nevada". But what about the green blob on the Georgia-Florida border? And what's up with south Texas? Also, if you didn't catch the link, a fixed map: http://mapsbynik.com/maps/census0pop/census0pop-mapsbynik-re...

Pretty sure the big green blob is swamp/wetlands. The name Okefenokee rings a bell, but I might be confusing that with a different Florida swamp.

Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#28

Post by [deleted] »

ggchappell wrote: post #17

This is fascinating. Some of the big green areas are obvious: the Everglades, the forests of Maine, the awful stuff we call "Nevada". But what about the green blob on the Georgia-Florida border? And what's up with south Texas? Also, if you didn't catch the link, a fixed map: http://mapsbynik.com/maps/census0pop/census0pop-mapsbynik-re...

[deleted]

Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#29

Post by glenstein »

seanalltogether wrote: post #6

Can anyone explain whats going on with Maine? It doesn't make sense for a coastal state to be so uninhabited.

The vast majority of our population is scrunched into the southernmost quarter of the state. I'm not sure but I would guess Maine is the poorest of the New England states. Our economy depends very much on tourism and economic connections to the rest of New England, which means the state "faces" the south, in a sense.

Not a whole lot going on up in the north by comparison. Just forest and many many lakes which alternate between being frozen or mosquito infested depending on the season.

Re: Nobody lives here: the 5 million US census blocks with zero population

#30

Post by bmelton »

Dewie wrote: post #4
ChuckMcM wrote: post #2

Drove across Wyoming the other day on the way to Denver and I could definitely appreciate that it was the least populated state in the US (or least densely populated). Lots of open space.

Surely Alaska is the least densely populated state. 1.7 million km2, with a population of around 730,000.

To be precise, Alaska is the least _densely_ populated state, but Wyoming is the least populated state.

Wyoming has a population of ~576,000, which is clearly less than Alaska's population of ~731,000 in absolute numbers of population.

However, because Alaska is roughly 6 times larger (586,412 square miles vs 97,814), it wins by quite a bit on lowest density.

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