Mapping the Hollowing of the United States
The American population is moving south and west. You can see that migration writ large in the US Population Growth Atlas , an interactive map showing how the populations of every US county and state have changed between 1980 and 2025. The most striking feature of the map is the broad band of population decline running through the middle of the country. From the Dakotas and Montana, south through Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma and into parts of West Texas, large numbers of counties are coloured red or orange. It is an “Emptying Middle” separating the rapidly growing populations of the coasts and the Sun Belt. Elsewhere the picture is very different. Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and much of Texas are dominated by green, as are Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. California also remains predominantly green. The map reveals the remarkable extent to which American population growth over the past 45 years has been concentrated in the South and West. The da...
