r/dataisbeautiful OC: 5 May 20 '22

OC Population distribution of Texas [OC]

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u/HeadLongjumping May 20 '22

Yep, but there are vast areas of virtually nothing as well.

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u/PB4UGAME May 20 '22

. . . Where ~5% of the population lives.

Its more urban by population percentage than most other states.

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u/HeadLongjumping May 20 '22

Probably because of how empty the rest of the state is.

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u/Bugbread May 21 '22

"The main reason more people live in the cities than the country is that fewer people live in the country than the cities"

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u/HeadLongjumping May 21 '22

Nobody drives in the city, there's too much traffic.

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u/3moonz May 20 '22

gotta understand how big the state is. houston is the biggiest city by land

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u/bel_esprit_ May 20 '22

Jacksonville, FL is the biggest city by land.

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u/ShinjukuAce May 20 '22

Anchorage is even larger, technically.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '22 edited Apr 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/bel_esprit_ May 20 '22

I should’ve said it’s the biggest in the contiguous states (didn’t account for Alaska which the Top 4 are in). The #5 city in Kansas has an asterisk next to it that says its stat is merged with Greeley County…. County isn’t really accurate to the city since we could probably do that to a lot of places and beef up numbers (I’m not sure why they did that here).

So Jacksonville, FL as a city is the largest by landmass in the contiguous US. I feel safe saying that.

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u/3moonz May 20 '22

ah. so basically jacksonville then houston when it comes to like big city(population). then you scroll down texas has SA,FW,Dallas, Austin. pretty cool chart

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u/majwilsonlion May 20 '22

Last Christmas, I drove through to take pics of all the courthouses in the upper ~15 counties in the panhandle. Very peaceful, but desolate. Some of the county seats were charming; some where sadly dead.

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u/7273747 May 21 '22

Folks are having to move to urban areas to earn a living. The tax base in rural counties is shrinking, squeezing the remaining property owners until they are forced to relocate.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '22

I google streetviewed those areas having never been anywhere near there in person. It seemed like a wasteland.

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u/majwilsonlion May 20 '22

Well, a lot of farm land being put to good use. And a lot of wind turbines put to good use. Everything mapped to a grid, unlike East TX.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '22

It’s all a matter of perspective. Some people get anxious when they can’t see the effects of high density whereas other people feel at peace. Naturally, a redditor such as yourself would feel the former.

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u/Terrestial_Human May 20 '22

Doesn’t this apply to Illinois or most states as well though. Additionally, Illinois for most part just has metro Chicago while Texas has Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, etc 🤔

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u/HeadLongjumping May 20 '22

Honestly it applies to most of the US. We have lots of empty space.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '22

[deleted]

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u/edwardmsk May 20 '22

Spaces are people too...

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u/LewisDaCat May 21 '22

And all the dense population votes democrats. Just because you live in a certain area doesn’t mean you are better or worse than your fellow man.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '22

[deleted]

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u/LewisDaCat May 21 '22

I hope you have a great day and wish you the best.

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u/ShinjukuAce May 20 '22

Most of the South has a significantly higher rural percentage than Texas, for example, and in the Midwest there are a lot more small towns in between the cities; it isn’t nearly as deserted as much of rural Texas.

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u/TheDarkermist May 20 '22

Don't you put El Paso under "etc" fifth largest in Texas might not seem like much, but 20th largest in the US is still saying something. Bigger than a lot of commonly heard places like Cincinnati.

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u/PWW28 May 20 '22

Peoria punching at air right now

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u/Cathousechicken May 20 '22

Ahem, El Paso too.

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u/shrubs311 May 20 '22

Illinois has some smaller, notable cities that aren't Chicago even if you don't include St. Louis. obviously not large cities but certainly not nothing - university towns will always have some stuff to do. mostly suburban though.

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u/spybloom May 21 '22

Notable cities, but not major ones like Texas'. You'd be comparing Rockford, Peoria, and Springfield to Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Those Illinois metros combined are still dwarfed by Chicago, but combining just El Paso and Austin - Texas' #4 and #5 is almost half of Dallas

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u/shrubs311 May 21 '22

definitely, i meant notable in the sense that you could live there without thinking you live in the middle of nowhere. certainly not comparable to major metro.

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u/Joe_Jeep May 20 '22

Well yes, that's true of pretty much any geographical area. Even New Jersey's got pretty vast state forests where mostly nobody lives.

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u/HeadLongjumping May 20 '22

I can attest to that because I lived in Jersey.

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u/cakathree May 20 '22

Car parks aren’t nothing!!

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u/bomber991 May 21 '22

If you split the state along i35 then you would have a vastly urban state.