States ranked in order of population

[Max]

While I concede that this topic is nothing more than useless trivia, I have always found it interesting to know where each state ranks in terms of population. Therefore, I have decided to make a list of all states, ranked from most populated to least populated (meaning that #1 is the most populated state, #2 is the second most populated state, and so on). Before I begin writing this list, there are some important points I want to make:

*The source of this data is from the 2000 Census, the most recent Census done. Therefore, some of this information is out of date. For instance--unlike how it was in 2000--I believe that Florida now has more population than New York, and that Georgia now has more population than New Jersey.

*After the dashes that follow each state, you will see a number. This number indicates the number of Congressmen that each state currently has. This is a helpful number, given that I don't have the figures for the number of people living in each state. What this number does is to give you a sense of just how many more people live in state A than in state B. (For instance, you will see that California has 53 Congressmen while Ohio has 18. What this tells you is that in 2000, California's population was almost three times greater than Ohio's population.) However, this number won't be useful when comparing the populations of two states (states C and D) that have the same number of Congressmen; instead, you will just know by the ranking that state C has only a slighter greater population than state D. Finally, please note that the number of Congressmen that a state has is not equal to the number of electoral votes that a state has in a presidential election; to find the number of electoral votes each state has follow this formula: # of Electoral Votes a state has equals # of Congressmen a state has plus # of Senators a state has. However, since each state has two senators, the formula can be rewritten like this: # of Electoral Votes a state has equals # of Congressmen a state has plus two.

*The District of Columbia will be included in this list, even though it is not a state. And, even though the District of Columbia has no Congressmen, the number listed after the dashes represents the number of Congressmen that it would have were it to actually become a state.

The list is below:

1. California--53

2. Texas--32

3. New York--29

4. Florida--25

5. Illinois--19

6. Pennsylvania--19

7. Ohio--18

8. Michigan--15

9. New Jersey--13

10. Georgia--13

11. North Carolina--13

12. Virginia--11

13. Massachusetts--10

14. Indiana--9

15. Washington--9

16. Tennessee--9

17. Missouri--9

18. Wisconsin--8

19. Maryland--8

20. Arizona--8

21. Minnesota--8

22. Louisiana--7

23. Alabama--7

24. Colorado--7

25. Kentucky--6

26. South Carolina--6

27. Oklahoma--5

28. Oregon--5

29. Connecticut--5

30. Iowa--5

31. Mississippi--4

32. Kansas--4

33. Arkansas--4

34. Utah--3

35. Nevada--3

36. New Mexico--3

37. West Virginia--3

38. Nebraska--3

39. Idaho--2

40. Maine--2

41. New Hampshire--2

42. Hawaii--2

43. Rhode Island--2

44. Montana--1

45. Delaware--1

46. South Dakota--1

47. North Dakota--1

48. Alaska--1

49. Vermont--1

50. District of Columbia--1

51. Wyoming--1

[Adam]

And for our Canadian members here are the rankings in terms of population for the provinces and territories.... taken from the last census in 2001, a new census will be taken later this year.

Canada's Total Population: 31,021,300

1. Ontario- 11,410,046

2. Quebec- 7,237,479

3. British Columbia- 3,907,738

4. Alberta- 2,974,807

5. Manitoba- 1,119,583

6. Saskatchewan- 978,933

7. Nova Scotia- 908,007

8. New Brunswick- 729,498

9. Newfoundland and Labrador- 512,930

10. Prince Edward Island- 135,294

11. Northwest Territories- 37,360

12. Yukon Territory- 28,674

13. Nunavut- 26,745

[soapfan770]

It doesn't surprise me that the Northeastern states like New York(especially upstate), Pennsylvania, and Ohio are losing populations. They've been moving down here in the past couple of years like ants at a picnic! I'm not sure about California, but there some coming over here too.

[darraholic]

I believe Alberta is the fastest growing province. I know were about 3 million now. Edmonton reached 1 million people not to long ago.

[Max]

Amcfan_19 and darraholic, thank you for that very interesting information regarding the population of Canada's provinces and territories.

Soapfan770 brought up the interesting topic regarding population shifts from one state to another. While all states gained population from 1990 to 2000 (even the states that people are moving out of are grew, simply because of new births), the rate of population increase each state had over the decade varies dramatically.

Obviously, states with below-average growth rates between 1990 and 2000 lost Congressmen, while states with above-average growth rates gained Congressmen. Below is a listing of which states lost or gained Congressmen from 1990 to 2000. (Note that only 18 states are listed. The other 32 states had no change in their number of Congressmen from 1990 to 2000. The reason for this is because the growth rates in these states were on par with the national growth rate.)

States that lost 2 Congressmen:

New York

Pennsylvania

States that lost 1 Congressman:

Connecticut

Illinois

Indiana

Michigan

Mississippi

Ohio

Oklahoma

Wisconsin

States that gained 1 Congressman:

California

Colorado

Nevada

North Carolina

States that gained 2 Congressmen:

Arizona

Florida

Georgia

Texas