Wondering why?

Question

It has been years since I was in school, and have been wondering why the population is less in the states farther west. It was probably mentioned in a class, but I can't remember.

Answer 1

Well, there are two reasons -- one historical and one geographical.

Europeans first populated North America from the east coast. That's where the 13 colonies were, and that's where European immigrants landed during the great waves of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (This ignores Mexico, but immigration from Mexico wasn't that important until recently.) A century ago, therefore, there were a lot more people east of the Mississippi than west.

Big cities first grew up in the east. That's because that's where the people were, and industrialization needed factory workers.

Except for the Gold Rush, everything west of the Mississippi was agricultural. The pioneers in covered wagons were farmers more than anything else. This does not lead to great population density.

Also, immigration from Asia a century or more ago was tiny compared to immigration from Europe.

Now, it's true that over the last 200 or 300 years, the center of population of the United States has gradually been moving westward, but this movement began right on the east coast.

Okay, those are the historical reasons. Now for the geography. East of the Mississippi, the climate is moderate, the soil is fertile, there's plenty of rainfall, and the terrain is relatively flat, thus enabling farming. The land can support a large population.

For vast areas of the west, it's a much different story. Water is a problem. Between Denver (the Front Range of the Rockies) and California's Central Valley, it's all mountains and desert. And east of Denver across the Great Plains, both water transportation are problems. In that region, first there were buffalo, then cattle, then corn. None of these encourage dense populations.

The final geographic feature is the remoteness and relative inaccessibility of the west. Before the Panama Canal, the interstate highways, and the large airplane, it was extraordinarily difficult to reach the western United States, either by land or by sea.

In modern times, of course, California has become the most populous state of the nation, and Texas is number three. With irrigation, both states can support large populations (plus, they're both very large states). Coastal Oregon and Washington also have sizeable populations too, and the "sunbelt" desert southwest (Arizona and Nevada) have high growth rates. But all this is due to recent technology, e.g., air conditioning.

And it remains true that in the deserts, the mountains, the Great Basin, and the Great Plains, population densities are less than are found east of the Mississippi.

I think this answers your question.

Answer 2

We are still a relatively new country, and there have been people living on the east coast for 400 years. Europeans and Americans didn't start to settle the west until about 150 years ago. So it's just a matter of historical settlement.

Answer 3

More industry in the east and that's where the US population originated that migrated west. As it moved west, it spread out.

Also much of the west is desert, mountainous, or arid making it difficult live there.

Answer 4

Population tends to cluster around industrialized areas.