Demographics

Mapped: The Population of U.S. States Compared with Countries

Published

4 months ago

January 12, 2024

Bruno Venditti

Graphics/Design:

Sam Parker

To offer perspective on the population of U.S. states, this map compares them to countries that share similar population sizes.

Visualizing The Population of U.S. States Compared with Countries

The U.S. ranks as the third most populous country globally, boasting a population of around 336 million people.

This map compares its states and Washington D.C. to countries with similar population sizes to provide a perspective on the U.S. population. The data is sourced from Census.gov and Worldometer, with population projections for U.S. states as of December 8, 2023, and other countries as of July 16, 2023.

U.S Population Driven by Three States

Almost a third of the U.S. population resides in three states: California, Texas, and Florida.

California, the most populated, has a population equivalent to Canada. If the Golden State were a country, it would rank as the 38th most populous.

Rank	State	2023 Population	Country	2023 Population
1	California	38,915,693	🇨🇦 Canada	38,781,291
2	Texas	30,500,280	🇲🇬 Madagascar	30,325,732
3	Florida	22,661,577	🇹🇼 Taiwan	23,923,276
4	New York	19,496,810	🇷🇴 Romania	19,892,812
5	Pennsylvania	12,931,957	🇧🇴 Bolivia	12,388,571
6	Illinois	12,477,595	🇹🇳 Tunisia	12,458,223
7	Ohio	11,747,774	🇭🇹 Haiti	11,724,763
8	Georgia	11,037,723	🇧🇪 Belgium	11,686,140
9	North Carolina	10,832,061	🇸🇪 Sweden	10,612,086
10	Michigan	10,030,722	🇬🇷 Greece	10,341,277
11	New Jersey	9,255,437	🇮🇱 Israel	9,174,520
12	Virginia	8,709,873	🇨🇭 Switzerland	8,796,669
13	Washington	7,830,827	🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR	7,491,609
14	Arizona	7,453,517	🇷🇸 Serbia	7,149,077
15	Tennessee	7,134,327	🇳🇮 Nicaragua	7,046,310
16	Massachusetts	6,974,258	🇱🇾 Libya	6,888,388
17	Indiana	6,852,542	🇵🇾 Paraguay	6,861,524
18	Missouri	6,186,091	🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo	6,106,869
19	Maryland	6,154,710	🇸🇬 Singapore	6,014,723
20	Wisconsin	5,904,977	🇩🇰 Denmark	5,910,913
21	Colorado	5,868,555	🇸🇰 Slovakia	5,795,199
22	Minnesota	5,722,897	🇫🇮 Finland	5,545,475
23	South Carolina	5,372,002	🇳🇿 New Zealand	5,228,100
24	Alabama	5,098,746	🇮🇪 Ireland	5,056,935
25	Louisiana	4,553,384	🇴🇲 Oman	4,644,384
26	Kentucky	4,518,031	🇵🇦 Panama	4,468,087
27	Oregon	4,223,973	🇰🇼 Kuwait	4,310,108
28	Oklahoma	4,048,375	🇭🇷 Croatia	4,008,617
29	Connecticut	3,629,055	🇲🇳 Mongolia	3,447,157
30	Utah	3,422,487	🇲🇩 Moldova	3,435,931
31	Nevada	3,209,142	🇺🇾 Uruguay	3,423,108
32	Iowa	3,203,345	🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina	3,210,847
33	Arkansas	3,063,152	🇦🇱 Albania	2,832,439
34	Kansas	2,936,378	🇯🇲 Jamaica	2,825,544
35	Mississippi	2,930,528	🇬🇲 The Gambia	2,773,168
36	New Mexico	2,110,011	🇸🇮 Slovenia	2,119,675
37	Idaho	1,973,752	🇲🇰 North Macedonia	2,085,679
38	Nebraska	1,972,292	🇱🇻 Latvia	1,830,211
39	West Virginia	1,764,786	🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea	1,714,671
40	Hawaii	1,433,238	🇧🇭 Bahrain	1,485,509
41	New Hampshire	1,402,957	🇪🇪 Estonia	1,322,765
42	Maine	1,393,442	🇲🇺 Mauritius	1,300,557
43	Montana	1,139,507	🇨🇾 Cyprus	1,260,138
44	Rhode Island	1,090,483	🇸🇿 Eswatini	1,210,822
45	Delaware	1,031,985	🇩🇯 Djibouti	1,136,455
46	South Dakota	923,484	🇫🇯 Fiji	936,375
47	North Dakota	780,588	🇧🇹 Bhutan	787,424
48	Alaska	732,984	🇸🇧 Solomon Islands	740,424
49	D.C.	678,972	🇲🇴 Macao SAR	704,149
50	Vermont	647,156	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	654,768
51	Wyoming	583,279	🇫🇲 Micronesia	544,321

Texas, with over 30 million people, matches the population of Madagascar. Florida, with around 23 million, is comparable to Taiwan’s population.

Conversely, Wyoming stands as the least populated state in the country with fewer than 600,000 people, roughly equivalent to the population of Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean. The state is also the second-last in the U.S. economy by GDP output, just ahead of Vermont (the runner-up state by lowest population).

If New Jersey were a country, its population would match Israel’s. Virginia would have the same number of people as Switzerland, and Michigan would have the same number as Greece.

What might be more surprising to some are comparisons like Pennsylvania, which has almost the same amount of people as Bolivia, the eighth most populated country in South America.

U.S. Population Trends

According to the United States Census Bureau, the U.S. population continues to grow despite declining births.

The nation gained more than 1.6 million people in 2023, growing by 0.5%. More states experienced population growth in 2023 than in any year since the start of the pandemic.

U.S. migration returning to pre-pandemic levels and a drop in deaths have been the key drivers of this population growth.

Related Topics:texas maps population california americans people florida U.S. states U.S.

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Demographics

The Countries That Have Become Sadder Since 2010

Tracking Gallup survey data for more than a decade reveals some countries are witnessing big happiness declines, reflecting their shifting socio-economic conditions.

Published

3 days ago

April 23, 2024

Pallavi Rao

A cropped chart showing the top countries with the biggest happiness declines (measured out of 10) between 2010–24.

The Countries That Have Become Sadder Since 2010

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Can happiness be quantified?

Some approaches that try to answer this question make a distinction between two differing components of happiness: a daily experience part, and a more general life evaluation (which includes how people think about their life as a whole).

The World Happiness Report—first launched in 2012—has been making a serious go at quantifying happiness, by examining Gallup poll data that asks respondents in nearly every country to evaluate their life on a 0–10 scale. From this they extrapolate a single “happiness score” out of 10 to compare how happy (or unhappy) countries are.

More than a decade later, the 2024 World Happiness Report continues the mission. Its latest findings also include how some countries have become sadder in the intervening years.

Which Countries Have Become Unhappier Since 2010?

Afghanistan is the unhappiest country in the world right now, and is also 60% unhappier than over a decade ago, indicating how much life has worsened since 2010.

In 2021, the Taliban officially returned to power in Afghanistan, after nearly two decades of American occupation in the country. The Islamic fundamentalist group has made life harder, especially for women, who are restricted from pursuing higher education, travel, and work.

On a broader scale, the Afghan economy has suffered post-Taliban takeover, with various consequent effects: mass unemployment, a drop in income, malnutrition, and a crumbling healthcare system.

Rank	Country	Happiness Score Loss (2010–24)	2024 Happiness Score (out of 10)
1	🇦🇫 Afghanistan	-2.6	1.7
2	🇱🇧 Lebanon	-2.3	2.7
3	🇯🇴 Jordan	-1.5	4.2
4	🇻🇪 Venezuela	-1.3	5.6
5	🇲🇼 Malawi	-1.2	3.4
6	🇿🇲 Zambia	-1.2	3.5
7	🇧🇼 Botswana	-1.2	3.4
8	🇾🇪 Yemen	-1.0	3.6
9	🇪🇬 Egypt	-1.0	4.0
10	🇮🇳 India	-0.9	4.1
11	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	-0.9	3.9
12	🇨🇩 DRC	-0.7	3.3
13	🇹🇳 Tunisia	-0.7	4.4
14	🇨🇦 Canada	-0.6	6.9
15	🇺🇸 U.S.	-0.6	6.7
16	🇨🇴 Colombia	-0.5	5.7
17	🇵🇦 Panama	-0.5	6.4
18	🇵🇰 Pakistan	-0.5	4.7
19	🇿🇼 Zimbabwe	-0.5	3.3
20	🇮🇪 Ireland	-0.5	6.8
N/A	🌍 World	+0.1	5.5

Nine countries in total saw their happiness score drop by a full point or more, on the 0–10 scale.

Noticeably, many of them have seen years of social and economic upheaval. Lebanon, for example, has been grappling with decades of corruption, and a severe liquidity crisis since 2019 that has resulted in a banking system collapse, sending poverty levels skyrocketing.

In Jordan, unprecedented population growth—from refugees leaving Iraq and Syria—has aggravated unemployment rates. A somewhat abrupt change in the line of succession has also raised concerns about political stability in the country.