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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

#81

Post by culturestate »

cortesoft wrote: post #22
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 d…

Hong Kong's population density is actually even more impressive than that when you consider that large swaths of the land are either mountains or protected areas that developers are unable to build on. Many areas in the city are an order or magnitude or more higher - Mong Kok, for instance, has a population density up around 130,000 people per km/sq.

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

#82

Post by dredmorbius »

olefoo wrote: post #78
stephengillie wrote: post #9

Almost exactly 1/2 of the US population lives east of the Mississippi, which is almost exactly 1/3 of the land mass.

And supposedly half the population that lives West of the Mississippi lives within 30 miles of I-5. Don't have the US Census loaded currently so I can't check it, but that does sound about right.

Given that half the population of the US is 156 million, and half that is 78, it's plausible, but a quick add-up of combined MSAs comes up short:

LA is 18.1 million, San Diego 3.2 Sacramento 2.2, Stockton 0.7, Portland 0.5, and Seattle-Tacoma 3.6. I get about 23.3 million total, which is still 54 million short.

SF-SJ-Oak adds another 8.4 million, but most of it is more than 30 miles from I5.

Checking by state confirms it:

CA: 38m, OR: 3.9m, WA: 6.9m. combined total: 48.8m. Still 30 million short.

Mythbusted.

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

#83

Post by ubernostrum »

refurb wrote: post #33
tomkinstinch wrote: post #27

Related to this is a PDF from the USGS showing the average distance to the nearest road: https://www.fort.usgs.gov/sites/default/files/products/publi...

Thanks for posting that link, very interesting! Two comments: 1. I lean towards the idea that the government wastes a lot of money on stupid things. This however, is pretty dam neat. 2. I'm surprised that most of the US (60%?) is purple/blue which would suggest most of the land in the US has a road within 0.2 to 0.5 km? That's really surprising. I guess if you threw in logging roads and any type of path that could su…

Obviously the coasts have a lot more population centers, which affects the average distance.

But sometime swing over to Google Maps and start zooming in on a state in the center of the country, but stay away from the larger cities. You'll find a lot of places with pretty regular grids of roads, just spaced out more than they would be in a city (about a mile apart is pretty common). And if you think about what that land is used for, you'll probably be able to work out why they're there :)

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

#85

Post by Dewie »

bmelton wrote: post #30
Dewie wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

You aren't adding any precision, or disambiguating. The OP said least _densely_ populated, as did I.

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

#86

Post by aw3c2 »

Yardlink wrote: post #66
loourr wrote: post #57

And if you shrink the size of the census block even further you'll find that an amazing 90+% of land isn't actually being occupied!

If you shrink it even further still you'll find 100% isn't being occupied! That's assuming each person occupies only a point, or pretty close to. That's why this map is so misleading even if it is fascinating. The size of the blocks has a huge effect on the result.

But isn't the resulting image kind of inversely misleading? Ie showing less unoccupied space than existing? Most of the occupied blocks are only occupied in fractions, as you both say.

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

#87

Post by wyclif »

jabits wrote: post #65
Karunamon wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Native wyomingite here - I wouldn't live anywhere else. Cheyenne (state capital) isn't even that densely populated and it's about the busiest city I'd ever want to live in. Here, life seems mostly laid back and relaxing where just a few tens of miles to the south in either Fort Collins or Denver, CO, life feels hectic and claustrophobic. I'd call this city just about perfect, though - it's still in Wyoming, so there'…

I don't know. I lived in Cheyenne for five years (nuke officer), and to this day, whenever I get caught in an afternoon, car door bending wind, I think of those days; the air continuously rolls down the Front Range whipping through town...but Vedauwoo was beautiful, and thankfully Ft Collins was just a hop away.

Vedauwoo is nice, and Laramie is a laid-back college town. I also like the more remote parts of NE WY, like Thunder Basin National Grassland. I have friends who are homesteading near Wheatland.

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

#88

Post by mnw21cam »

tomerico wrote: post #46
jonnathanson wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll fight each other over fresh water supplies long before we're shoving each other into the sea. The looming water crisis is a particularly big problem in California, Arizona, and parts of the Southwest. Interestingly, farmland irrigation accounts for a bigger drain on water than almost all of the nearby cities combined.

You can 'create' more water by desalination. The real problem is in energy.

Growing crops with desalinated water costs more for the energy to produce the water than the price of the crops grown. That's why desalinated water tends to only be used for domestic supply. The real problem is energy price.

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

#89

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

ternaryoperator wrote: post #48
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a recluse and I've actually considered one day retiring to a state like Montana, Wyoming, or Idaho. This infographic just made my eyes light up. "Oh my god I can finally get away from everyone" I thought.

Well, if you do go the hermit/recluse path, I hope you keep coming up with the elegant products and great designs that you've created in the past [1] [1] http://www.chrisnorstrom.com/category/creation/

Oh thank you. I didn't know anyone actually read those. I mainly started my blog to give myself a boost in confidence every now and then and help me get a 9-5 design job eventually.

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

#90

Post by micro_cam »

discohead wrote: post #60

Idaho has over 9 million acres of inventoried roadless areas. The largest of which is the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, which together with adjacent wilderness and forest service land constitutes the largest roadless area in the lower 48 at 3.3 million acres. If you love the great outdoors, I can't recommend this area enough. It is a real treasure.

And of course it is only separated from the 1.3 million acre selway bitteroot wilderness area by the magruder road, a 101 mile dirt road built originally to aid in response to large wild fires. I live on the other side of it from Idaho near Missoula, MT. There is a surprisingly good startup scene here.
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