The Population Of US States Compared With Countries

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

Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti and Sam Parker created this map to compares it 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.

the population of us states compared with countries

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.

RankState2023 PopulationCountry2023 Population
1California38,915,693🇨🇦 Canada38,781,291
2Texas30,500,280🇲🇬 Madagascar30,325,732
3Florida22,661,577🇹🇼 Taiwan23,923,276
4New York19,496,810🇷🇴 Romania19,892,812
5Pennsylvania12,931,957🇧🇴 Bolivia12,388,571
6Illinois12,477,595🇹🇳 Tunisia12,458,223
7Ohio11,747,774🇭🇹 Haiti11,724,763
8Georgia11,037,723🇧🇪 Belgium11,686,140
9North Carolina10,832,061🇸🇪 Sweden10,612,086
10Michigan10,030,722🇬🇷 Greece10,341,277
11New Jersey9,255,437🇮🇱 Israel9,174,520
12Virginia8,709,873🇨🇭 Switzerland8,796,669
13Washington7,830,827🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR7,491,609
14Arizona7,453,517🇷🇸 Serbia7,149,077
15Tennessee7,134,327🇳🇮 Nicaragua7,046,310
16Massachusetts6,974,258🇱🇾 Libya6,888,388
17Indiana6,852,542🇵🇾 Paraguay6,861,524
18Missouri6,186,091🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo6,106,869
19Maryland6,154,710🇸🇬 Singapore6,014,723
20Wisconsin5,904,977🇩🇰 Denmark5,910,913
21Colorado5,868,555🇸🇰 Slovakia5,795,199
22Minnesota5,722,897🇫🇮 Finland5,545,475
23South Carolina5,372,002🇳🇿 New Zealand5,228,100
24Alabama5,098,746🇮🇪 Ireland5,056,935
25Louisiana4,553,384🇴🇲 Oman4,644,384
26Kentucky4,518,031🇵🇦 Panama4,468,087
27Oregon4,223,973🇰🇼 Kuwait4,310,108
28Oklahoma4,048,375🇭🇷 Croatia4,008,617
29Connecticut3,629,055🇲🇳 Mongolia3,447,157
30Utah3,422,487🇲🇩 Moldova3,435,931
31Nevada3,209,142🇺🇾 Uruguay3,423,108
32Iowa3,203,345🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina3,210,847
33Arkansas3,063,152🇦🇱 Albania2,832,439
34Kansas2,936,378🇯🇲 Jamaica2,825,544
35Mississippi2,930,528🇬🇲 The Gambia2,773,168
36New Mexico2,110,011🇸🇮 Slovenia2,119,675
37Idaho1,973,752🇲🇰 North Macedonia2,085,679
38Nebraska1,972,292🇱🇻 Latvia1,830,211
39West Virginia1,764,786🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea1,714,671
40Hawaii1,433,238🇧🇭 Bahrain1,485,509
41New Hampshire1,402,957🇪🇪 Estonia1,322,765
42Maine1,393,442🇲🇺 Mauritius1,300,557
43Montana1,139,507🇨🇾 Cyprus1,260,138
44Rhode Island1,090,483🇸🇿 Eswatini1,210,822
45Delaware1,031,985🇩🇯 Djibouti1,136,455
46South Dakota923,484🇫🇯 Fiji936,375
47North Dakota780,588🇧🇹 Bhutan787,424
48Alaska732,984🇸🇧 Solomon Islands740,424
49D.C.678,972🇲🇴 Macao SAR704,149
50Vermont647,156🇱🇺 Luxembourg654,768
51Wyoming583,279🇫🇲 Micronesia544,321

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.

Authored by Tyler Durden via ZeroHedge January 19th 2024