Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 1st of March 2019 to The Sounding Line.

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The following map, from Vivid Maps, shows the population density of the United States from 1790 until 2010.

The population of the US remained overwhelmingly east of the Mississippi for the first several decades after independence. In 1800, the average population density in the US was just 6.1 residents per square mile. Beginning in the early 1800s, population centers began to develop just west of the Mississippi and, beginning in the 1840s, the first significant populations began to arrive in the West, settling in what is now San Fransisco, Salt Lake City, and Denver. The California Gold Rush, which started in 1848, further accelerating the migration west. By 2000, the US population density had risen to 79.6 residents per square mile and today it stands over at 92 residents per square mile .

The West (barring the West-Coast) and Alaska remain the least populated areas of the county.

Keep in mind that the map does not include Native American populations, which declined dramatically during the same period.

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