While the population density in the United States is roughly 90 people per square mile, most people reside in cities with a substantially greater density. Even within cities, population densities vary significantly from one neighborhood to the next.
Population density is a comparison of the intensity of people across geographic areas (i.e., neighborhoods). Population density is commonly expressed in the United States as the number of people per square mile of land area. The overall US population density is estimated by dividing the US population by the entire land area in the US (approximately 3.5 million square miles).
This figure presents an average of how many people would live inside one square mile if the United States population was evenly distributed across all of its land areas. However, populations are dispersed unevenly throughout regions. Specifically, people tend to congregate more frequently in urban areas, while people living in rural areas are typically distributed more sparsely over the same land area.
Types of Population Density
Population density is represented as an area and its associated conditions. The following are the several forms of population density:
1. Density arithmetic: Arithmetical Density is the number of people living in a square kilometer region. It is stated as a percentage of the total population divided by the entire area.
2. Functional Density: Functional density is a region's population ratio to agricultural land. It is also known as the human-to-agricultural land ratio.
3. Agricultural Density: A state's agricultural density is the ratio of its total rural population to its agricultural land. Farmers, agricultural laborers, and their families are part of the agricultural population.
4. Economic or Numerical Density: To calculate a state's economic density, divide the weighted index of its population by the production capacity index of all its financial resources as a percentage.
5. Nutritional Density: This is the ratio of a state's total population to the area under food crop cultivation in that state.
What is the Purpose of a High-Resolution Population Map?
High-resolution population distribution maps have been used in various applications, including illness burden calculation, epidemic modeling, resource allocation, disaster management, accessibility modeling, transportation and city planning, poverty mapping, and environmental impact assessment.
AirSage leverages and integrates the expanding amount of geographical data on human populations and demographics to provide a comprehensive Activity Density platform.
Census, GPS, cellphone, and other geographic information are all combined using patented methodologies and statistical approaches. A high-resolution population density map provides a more uniform picture of population distributions over a landscape than administrative unit counts while allowing for seamless integration with various other gridded datasets.
To learn more about AirSage’s population density platform called Activity Density , visit AirSage today!
