Which state has the most people?
🔎 Skip to the answer (ranking table)Guess
Which states have the most people? Tap them most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→4 in order
I bet… Texas! Everything's bigger there!
Answer
The real order is…
California has about 1.26× as many people as #2 Texas!
📚 Background More than 1 in 9 Americans is a Californian. Texas is #2 and gaining — it added the most people of any state last year. (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 estimates) (opens in a new tab)
🔍 Explore more: 📈『Half a million new Texans: where America is moving』→ I bet… Texas! Everything's bigger there!
Compare
Population (Census estimates, July 1, 2024)
Most: California (39,431,263 people); least shown here: Wyoming (587,618 people).
Note: measured in people (official Census estimates).
Geography is destiny!
Recap
🏅 Today's discovery
🏅 California is the USA's #1!
🐕 States in Numbers
Quiz a friend!
📋 See the ranking table (top 50)
| Rank | State | Value | Share of U.S. total |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | California | 39,431,263 people | 11.6% |
| #2 | Texas | 31,290,831 people | 9.2% |
| #3 | Florida | 23,372,215 people | 6.9% |
| #4 | New York | 19,867,248 people | 5.8% |
| #5 | Pennsylvania | 13,078,751 people | 3.8% |
| #6 | Illinois | 12,710,158 people | 3.7% |
| #7 | Ohio | 11,883,304 people | 3.5% |
| #8 | Georgia | 11,180,878 people | 3.3% |
| #9 | North Carolina | 11,046,024 people | 3.2% |
| #10 | Michigan | 10,140,459 people | 3% |
| #11 | New Jersey | 9,500,851 people | 2.8% |
| #12 | Virginia | 8,811,195 people | 2.6% |
| #13 | Washington | 7,958,180 people | 2.3% |
| #14 | Arizona | 7,582,384 people | 2.2% |
| #15 | Tennessee | 7,227,750 people | 2.1% |
| #16 | Massachusetts | 7,136,171 people | 2.1% |
| #17 | Indiana | 6,924,275 people | 2% |
| #18 | Maryland | 6,263,220 people | 1.8% |
| #19 | Missouri | 6,245,466 people | 1.8% |
| #20 | Wisconsin | 5,960,975 people | 1.8% |
| #21 | Colorado | 5,957,493 people | 1.8% |
| #22 | Minnesota | 5,793,151 people | 1.7% |
| #23 | South Carolina | 5,478,831 people | 1.6% |
| #24 | Alabama | 5,157,699 people | 1.5% |
| #25 | Louisiana | 4,597,740 people | 1.4% |
| #26 | Kentucky | 4,588,372 people | 1.3% |
| #27 | Oregon | 4,272,371 people | 1.3% |
| #28 | Oklahoma | 4,095,393 people | 1.2% |
| #29 | Connecticut | 3,675,069 people | 1.1% |
| #30 | Utah | 3,503,613 people | 1% |
| #31 | Nevada | 3,267,467 people | 1% |
| #32 | Iowa | 3,241,488 people | 1% |
| #33 | Arkansas | 3,088,354 people | 0.9% |
| #34 | Kansas | 2,970,606 people | 0.9% |
| #35 | Mississippi | 2,943,045 people | 0.9% |
| #36 | New Mexico | 2,130,256 people | 0.6% |
| #37 | Nebraska | 2,005,465 people | 0.6% |
| #38 | Idaho | 2,001,619 people | 0.6% |
| #39 | West Virginia | 1,769,979 people | 0.5% |
| #40 | Hawaii | 1,446,146 people | 0.4% |
| #41 | New Hampshire | 1,409,032 people | 0.4% |
| #42 | Maine | 1,405,012 people | 0.4% |
| #43 | Montana | 1,137,233 people | 0.3% |
| #44 | Rhode Island | 1,112,308 people | 0.3% |
| #45 | Delaware | 1,051,917 people | 0.3% |
| #46 | South Dakota | 924,669 people | 0.3% |
| #47 | North Dakota | 796,568 people | 0.2% |
| #48 | Alaska | 740,133 people | 0.2% |
| #49 | Vermont | 648,493 people | 0.2% |
| #50 | Wyoming | 587,618 people | 0.2% |
| 🇺🇸 USA (total) | 340,110,988 people | 100% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (July 1, 2024 (Census estimates))
Sources
Data as of: July 1, 2024 (Census estimates)
U.S. Census Bureau: Annual Estimates of the Resident Population (NST-EST2024), July 1, 2024 (opens in a new tab) (2026-07-12) — Official published estimates (the committed raw file is the Bureau's NST-EST2024-ALLDATA.csv, unchanged).
↳ On census.gov, search “NST-EST2024” and open the state population totals table.