Centers of Population | Hacker News Reader

Centers of Population

census.gov

65 pointsgeox43 comments

Interestingly enough, the mean center of population for NY State is only about 9 miles from the NJ border. Given NYC's location, not suprising. I wonder if there are any states with centers of population closer to the border than that. Given NY's geometry, if NYC continues to grow relative to upstate, I could imagine the center of population of the state actually being outside of NY State boundaries.

It's also possible in the past the NJ's state center of population might have been in NY - if Newark and Northern NJ were more relatively populous, I think that the mean center of population might be in Staten Island or the NY-NJ harbor.

After a brief search, Hawaii's is in the ocean between O'ahu and Moloka'i. DC's might be the closest to the state border (about 3.1 miles) but still just about directly in the center of the DC polygon.

Still feels like that's in Hawaii, though.

Rhode Island's is < 6.5 miles. Feels a bit like cheating though haha.

For Delaware, I eyeball the distance from the center of population to the nearest border (again NJ) at maybe three miles. But Delaware's so small that I feel like that doesn't count; something like (distance to border)/(square root of state area) might be worth looking at.

Definitely-would want to normalize distance by total state size, your formula works. I'm pretty sure NY would be the winner here, although Alaska might also be close by this metric.

Google Map's measurement tool is giving me a hair under 5 miles which beats out Rhode Island.

That's what I'm seeing too - can't believe I forgot there was a measurement tool.

I would randomly guess Portland, it's literally up against the WA border on the north, and most of the state lives in/around Portland.

For oregon the population center is almost exactly Detroit. There is a large population in the willamette valley south of portland (and bend is captured by this too).

Assuming this is true, and it makes sense that it would be; Detroit is in the north west corner of the state, up near the WA border.

Definitely is technically in the northwest part of the state, but I'm not sure I'd call it close to the Washington border.

It's much closer to Salem and Bend than it is Portland, for instance.

A fun project for your student(s):

Do an animated video of a US map, where the mean center of population for each state moves around every 10 years.

For a related nerdy science joke, there's also Massachusetts' geographic center or in other words, the "Center of Mass".

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/570

How much would each (national, state) CoP move if it took actual people's weight into account?

It is interesting that two smallest shifts in mean center of population are 2010-2020 and 1910-1920.

The largest shift appears to be 1850-1860 - perhaps due to the California Gold Rush?

for those interested: the mean center of population for the US is a county road somewhere between Springfield and St. Louis, Missouri. https://goo.gl/maps/nSt8tZKGvhcsXqieA

And the median is a Toyota plant in Indiana! https://goo.gl/maps/gG9KGVpJ3rovVRyH6

Just curious, what is the purpose of having the center of population?

If we align it perfectly with the center of mass of the continent, maybe it will prevent sea level rise?

It's relatively easy to calculate, and does show in a simple map something about the very complex internal immigration history of our country. But, if it were really hard to determine, it is not soooo important that we would be likely to bother.

If you wanted to place a shipping facility that could provide the fastest delivery to the most people in a given state, you could try putting it at the population center.

This is a major bummer for me. I live mere feet from the previous center of population for my state, and now it has moved nearly a mile away :(.

That's kind of interesting, I think it might be more interesting if they didn't include Alaska and Hawaii and tracked those separately.

Or if they also added all the territories and extreme rendition sites!

Interesting to me that the US cente roof population is still moving west. Even between 2010 and 2020 there’s a notable shift.

The moving South part is also interesting.

Retirees moving from the midwest to warmer climates also.

Texas is still west of the current center and there has been huge migration to Texas.

Anecdotally a lot of that is coming from California, though, which would have no net effect on the median line, right?

Depends on how much of the California influx is coming from Bay Area vs. L.A. or San Diego. It could still be a net southern shift.

Fun fact: All the major cities in Texas are further south than even LA.

San Diego -> Dallas is a tiny northern move, though.

This assumes the data is granular to the city level. ...it's probably just state level data - and they are likely just using the state center point.

Texas has a big population, as does California so I'd be surprised if the (actually small) net migration from California is really meaningful.

Why is the "geographic center of area" so far North?

https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2020/geo/geogr...

Alaska?

Because of the agglomeration of the United Frackers of the Bakken.

Is there a country who's center of population falls within another country?

I found Vietnam to be that case. https://vividmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Center-popu...

I thought they would already be marked on Google Maps, but they are not. It doesn't seem possible to add them even as a Tourist destination either. Interesting.

I'm able to suggest adding them after entering a name, setting a category (e.g. Tourist Attraction), and clicking "update location on map" and not actually moving it (e.g. reset).

You’ll find something very interesting about the mean center of population in the US (Texas County, MO). It’s the point from which the Delta wave of the pandemic emanated.

https://covidestim.org/

BTW, I should have added “in the US”. Did not mean to imply that the spread of Delta worldwide started there.

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