The One Minute Geographer: The Heavy Hand of Geography on the American Federal System

States of various shadings each house about one-third of the US population (2020 Census). Map by the author.

The United States Population in Thirds

We’ll start with a quick look at the simple map above that divides the population of the USA into thirds. Each of the three shades on the map have about one-third of the US population of about 331.5 million people by the 2020 Census. Only four states, dark blue, make up one-third of the US population.

California leads the Big Four pack with 39.5 million people followed by Texas (29.1 million), Florida (21.5) and New York 20.0). The Big Four combined have 110.4 million residents — exactly 33.3% of the US total. (There’s a table at the bottom of this post if you want to see the numbers.)

The next 11 states combined (middle shading) have another 108.7 million residents — 32.8%. These range from Pennsylvania (13.0 million) to Massachusetts (7.0).

All the remaining 30 states and DC have fewer than 7 million people, down to 577,000 in Wyoming. These states and DC are home to another third, 112 million people (33.9%).

The Foibles of the Electoral College

Now it gets more interesting.

Political representation in the United States is based on the idea that Senators and members of the House of Representatives represent…