David Letterman started his nightly Top Ten List from the bottom up. I will do the same. I will begin the list of the 10 least populated US states, which are really already full and overpopulated with number 10. I will proceed to make my case with a series of measurable limits that are often overlooked. In doing so I will reveal the limits to growth that need to become much more obvious to our citizenry. While it is true that in total numbers, these states don’t have the amount of people that the other 40 state have, it is also true that they do not have any resources to spare. Many critical tipping points will be revealed once we take a deeper look at water resources, wildlife, traffic, job availability, Indigenous rights and climate change.
There are obvious reasons for the low populations in these states. Among them are a state’s size, climate, terrain, and soil conditions. But population pressures are causing them to be exceeded which leads to more pollution, traffic, water scarcity and all the misery which comes with living in a more densely populated area: crime, mental illness, homelessness and general chaos brought about when services cannot keep up with demand.
The dangers of accepting growth as inevitable needs to be revealed. This is my attempt to demonstrate the need to see the U.S. as full and overflowing. If the least populated states are full then it goes without saying that the remaining states rest are further down that road.
There are limits which are less obvious as most people are unaware of the biocapacity of their locale. Perhaps that is why we keep welcoming growth into our limited spaces. We not only allow the developers to come into our cities to ruin our skylines, top into our diminishing water supplies, crowd our streets with more traffic, we roll out the red carpet for them. We delay their tax payments just to get them to come in and destroy our cities in a delusional attempt to improve life for all. Notice that I did not say ‘who’ is coming in, but ‘how many’ we keep inviting to continue to populate our cities and states.
But I digress. Let’s begin with number ten on the list our northern most state. Maine is the most forested of the lower 48, with winding roads and few freeways. Growth would mean cutting forests and in a world with climate chaos beating down our door cutting down mature trees which absorb carbon to make more room for humans is beyond ignorant, it is insane. Trees surrounding Lake Sebago in Portland Maine filter the water of this freshwater lake which is Maine’s second largest, and cutting down these trees to make room for more people will disturb the lake’s health. This will harm the citizens who depend on the lake for their drinking water. Maine is not a place to go if you are seeking employment either. The JD Irving company is the state’s largest employer with 15,000 workers but be prepared to work in the forest harvesting industry because that is what they do. It is a state which does not have many big employers and over 29,000 are currently listed as unemployed. Its winding roads will inevitably need widening to accommodate more growth further decimating the forests and the moose, black bears, pine martens and the myriad of birds who live there. By all means visit Maine’s amazing parks and shorelines but do not come in a U-Haul.
Montana comes in at number 9 on the list. It is big state so why not cram a bunch more people there? Well Montana actually comes from the word ‘mountain’ as 2/5 of this 41st state to enter the union is covered by ranges of the Rocky Mountains. That’s in the western part of the rectangular state. The eastern part of the state is rangeland, poor for growing crops but great for grazing animals and why Montana is considered to be the quintessential west. Big skies are part of the beauty of this sprawling state which is now under a drought alert. Last year its governor issued a warning saying that 42 % of the state was abnormally dry and another 18% was in a severe drought. 42 percent of the state is classified as abnormally dry, with another 18 percent of the state in severe to extreme drought conditions. May and June are historically the two wettest months of the year in Montana. If the snowpack is less than normal all of the rivers are affected and Montana is projected to be in ever declining snowpack and ever-increasing drought conditions due to climate change. In other words adding more people needing water for bathing, drinking, washing clothes is a fool’s game.
Rhode Island with a population of just over a million is number 8 on the list. It is also famously our smallest state weighing in at just over 1200 square miles. In spite of its small size, however, it grew in population by 4.35% in the last decade. According to the University of Rhode Island, urban growth rates show no signs of slowing down, impacting loss of natural vegetation, open space and the fueling the loss of forests and wildlife habitat and even agricultural lands. With just over 1,000 people per square mile Rhode Island is second only to New Jersey in population density. Being a coastal state Rhode Island is also subject to the damage caused by hurricanes which are forecasted to become more violent as climate warming adds more water vapor into the atmosphere. To add fuel to the fire Rhode Island is actually sinking while the oceans are rising, a fact shoreline developers will surely avoid putting on their brochures.
Coming in at number seven is Delaware. Delaware has already experienced a sea level rise of more than one foot in the last century and has the undesirable ‘honor’ of being the lowest lying state in the country at a time when sea rising is predicted to become a major issue in coastal areas. Hurricane Sandy hit just north of Delaware in October of 2011 knocking out power to thousands and causing much misery. These storms will undoubtedly get stronger. More development will only increase the number of victims of future storm events. Although the Cooper’s hawk and Barred Owl were removed from Delaware’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) List in 2015, there remain 184 bird species on that list. They include 19 species of endangered shorebirds including the red knot and piping plover. The number one reason stated for their precarious status is habitat loss and the number one driver of habitat loss is population growth. Don’t move here either.
South Dakota ranks 6th on the list of least populated states. I lived in eastern SD in the 70’s. I remember seeing pronghorns on the way to work which still roam in the eastern part of the state where I taught school. South Dakota encompasses 77,123 square miles which means that it averages only 10 people per square mile. But before we encourage people to move there it would be prudent to look at tribal claims on the land. There are 9 reservations in South Dakota, including the nation’s poorest, the Crow Creek Reservation inhabited by the Crow Creek Sioux tribe. The lack of density in South Dakota lends itself well to a traditional native lifestyle and speaks to the need to increase Indian land back to its promised dimensions and invest in their communities before we open to more development. In 2020 South Dakota had rain but it wasn’t enough to alleviate its long-term drought. When it stops raining aquifers do not get replenished and because 74% of South Dakota’s citizens use ground water as their source of drinking water, well you get the picture. If I could advise their Chamber of Commerce, I would tell them to keep welcoming tourists to its corn palace in Mitchell and the Paha Sapa, (what we call the Black Hills) but to wave goodbye when their tourist dollar are spent.
North Dakota ranks No. 5 just in front of South Dakota. Like its neighbor to the south, its landscape is comprised of former and current Indian country. There are five federally recognized Tribes within the state comprised of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, the Spirit Lake Nation the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Nation. All together there are 31,329 Indians in North Dakota of which almost 60% live on reservations. Their voices need to be considered before expansion to more non-Indians is considered, being that they are still fighting what was promised them in broken treaties. North Dakota has become a relatively recent beacon for jobs due to the increase of fracking of its oil shale, and is now the second largest crude oil producer in the US. But this comes with heavy price to the environment there. It has caused an increase in gas waste, and exposure to radioactive materials, heavy metals, polluted waters all posing risks for human health as well. The proposed route of the Dakota access pipeline has caused lengthy protests by the folks of Standing Rock Sioux reservation who worry about the contamination that pipelines always bring.The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie was violated before the ink was dry. It promised the Indigenous nations that they could retain portions of land in states, while ceding their land east of the Missouri River. It is worth going to visit the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in the western most part of this windswept state, but after you see the bison and the vistas do not stay. North Dakota would be wise use their oil revenue to buy some ‘No Vacancy’ signs.
If the cold, dark and mosquitoes don’t keep you away from Alaska, perhaps its 130 volcanoes and the seismic activity might. Alaska is an Aleut name and its indigenous people knew how to live off the land and not exploit its oil reserves which led to the horrific disaster that happened with the grounding of the Exxon Valdez. While I am as big a fan of whales as you could find, I also understand that when a small population of whale hunters use whale blubber for fuel, it is much less detrimental to the land than extracting oil has proven to be. Much of Alaska is tied up in glaciers and tundra, with populations just slightly growing in its main city of Anchorage. The state’s population is one of the few that tends to lose population perhaps because with just 5 hours of daylight in the winter, many suffer from seasonal effective disorder. Employment is not great either unless you work on the pipeline. The last frontier state is also a state which is geared up to extract its resources for export, oil, gas and seafood among them. This rugged landscape was also in the hands of its Indigenous people until fairly recently and they still struggle with the scraps left to them. The awful legacy of cheating the Inupiat, Yup'ik, Aleut, Athabaskan, Tlingit, and Haidai and others tribes out of their land and fishing rights is evident as they still have presence in its cities. Like so many other states on this list, population growth will only harm their continued struggles to gain a better footing in a society which has discarded them and nearly destroyed their traditional lifestyles. Luckily Alaska will probably not attract too much growth on its own due to the difficulty of living there, it is best saved for tourists.
The District of Columbia is a political entity but not really a state and has no representation in Congress. Nonetheless its population density is such that its traffic problems are well known in spite of six lines of mass transit boasting 91 stations. Its traffic congestion ranked third worst in the country before the pandemic. With an area of just over 68 square miles, its density averages 10,450 people per square mile. Since DC protects a relatively large amount of area designated at park land (7,000 acres) the only way to grow is up, further adding to traffic and all other issues which can be attributed to density. D.C.'s residential population grew more than 14 percent from 2010 to 2020, according to Census Bureau statistics. In 2021 it was proposed that Hardy Park in DC’s Ward 3, become a school in order to alleviate overcrowding in the public schools. There are folks protesting but when population growth is ignored these land use conflicts will only increase proving once again that last thing the parks and quality of life in DC needs is more people.
Vermont ranks number two on the least populated list. But at a population last measured at 623,251, one must look at its numbers relative to its square miles. Vermont is the 6th smallest state in the US with only 9, 614 square miles. Yet Vermont, known for its forests and lakes has witnessed a population increase of 2.8% in the last decade by those seeking a lifestyle with less traffic, and more open spaces. Ironically, this additional growth increases traffic and decreases open spaces as increased growth demands and expansion of housing which in turns drives the destruction of forests. More cars put pressure on road expansion which then brings out more bulldozers and the pristine nature of Vermont becomes a thing that the history books will only know.
Wyoming with a population of approximately 581,075 has the least people in it. It is ten times larger than Vermont. At first blush, with only lack of population density as a measure, it would seem the ideal destination for newcomers and a beacon for attracting real estate developers and agents. But Wyoming has a naturally arid climate and as our country’s 5th driest state it is experiencing extended periods of drought. Because each person in our fair land uses an average of about 82 gallons of water per day, water availability is deeply relevant to a state’s expansion plans. When 70% of your water is dependent on a deep snowpack, you need to start putting up no-vacancy signs. If we truly care about our iconic wildlife, we must also acknowledge that Wyoming’s bison, mountain lions, wolves, bald eagles, grizzly bears, black bears, elk, moose, deer, pronghorn antelope and wild horses, cannot thrive in a landscape carved up into subdivisions.
I hope it has become obvious in each of these ten examples that when water resources, indigenous rights, forest land, wildlife, jobs, quality of life, traffic, terrain, climate and climate change forecasts are all considered, we must face the harsh reality that the US is full and overflowing. It is time for a new narrative if we want a viable, thriving country. As Lional Shriver, author and Population Matters Patron once said, “We need to recognize that slowing population growth is one of the most cost-effective and reliable ways of easing pressure on our environment and securing a sustainable future for us all.”
A state’s growth happens in three ways: migration from other states, local fertility rates and immigration from countries. Growth, no matter how it occurs is still growth and must be well regulated. We have yet to wake up to this new narrative of limits. We can no longer afford to have our laws to remain stuck in the past when our still growing population of 332,000,000 was so much less. Let us be brave, embrace our updated story and tell those with greed in their eyeballs who refuse to regulate growth that there is no more room at the inn.