Oddities that defy conventional wisdom - POPULATION edition

[GaryV]

Carrot cake is a vegetable and zucchini bread is a fruit.

[index]

New York is the only state besides Hawaii where the majority of its population lives on an island (50.8%).

Legally speaking, NYC + Long Island is a peninsula and is treated as such by the courts and the government, but also legally speaking, pizza is a vegetable and cannabis has no accepted medical purpose, so that doesn't mean very much.

I don't think an island works.  The four counties on Long Island only total about 8 million.  You have to add in other islands to go over 50%.

By "an island" I meant like, there are 50.8% of the people who live on any island, rather than one specific island. 50.8% of the people can say "I live on an island" is how I thought about it in my head when writing that post.

I can confirm that it's accurate, but how does it defy conventional wisdom?

It's not really something that people tend to consider/not really a fact that stands out. New York and Hawaii being in the same category for that in spite of being starkly different feels a bit weird.

When you think about it, yeah, it makes perfect sense and there's nothing odd about it, in the same way how eating being stuffing dead stuff into a hole on your face isn't weird. It's normal but it's kind of weird when you think about it a bit.

[kphoger]

New York is the only state besides Hawaii ...

You must admit, however, that claiming "the majority of people in Hawaii live on an island" is a bit misleading.  It makes it sound like there is a minority in Hawaii who don't live on an island.

[NWI_Irish96]

New York is the only state besides Hawaii where the majority of its population lives on an island (50.8%).

Legally speaking, NYC + Long Island is a peninsula and is treated as such by the courts and the government, but also legally speaking, pizza is a vegetable and cannabis has no accepted medical purpose, so that doesn't mean very much.

I don't think an island works.  The four counties on Long Island only total about 8 million.  You have to add in other islands to go over 50%.

By "an island" I meant like, there are 50.8% of the people who live on any island, rather than one specific island. 50.8% of the people can say "I live on an island" is how I thought about it in my head when writing that post.

I understood it as you intended it.

[kalvado]

New York is the only state besides Hawaii ...

You must admit, however, that claiming "the majority of people in Hawaii live on an island" is a bit misleading.  It makes it sound like there is a minority in Hawaii who don't live on an island.

Less sensational way of putting it is - states with most population living on the island are: HI - 100%, obviously; if PR ever becomes a state it will also be 100%. Strangely next one is not Rhode Island  but NY with 50%+ living on an island (primarily NYC area - long island, manhattan, staten island; maybe I am missing some? Grand Island with it's 0.1% of NY population may be added for luls)
UPD: Actually, those listed above account for 49.2% of NYS population as far as I can tell. Is there another big island within  NYC? It's another 200k people.

[JayhawkCO]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

[webny99]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Depends on how "island" is defined (Cape Cod and the Delmarva are, technically).

And if you're basing Florida on the Keys, Rhode Island is probably comparable percentage-wise.

[JayhawkCO]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Depends on how "island" is defined (Cape Cod and the Delmarva are, technically).

And if you're basing Florida on the Keys, Rhode Island is probably comparable percentage-wise.

For Florida, I was also thinking about Miami Beach.

[GaryV]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Depends on how "island" is defined (Cape Cod and the Delmarva are, technically).

And if you're basing Florida on the Keys, Rhode Island is probably comparable percentage-wise.

For Florida, I was also thinking about Miami Beach.

Plus all the other barrier islands - anything outside the Intracoastal Waterway.

[vdeane]

New York is the only state besides Hawaii ...

You must admit, however, that claiming "the majority of people in Hawaii live on an island" is a bit misleading.  It makes it sound like there is a minority in Hawaii who don't live on an island.

Less sensational way of putting it is - states with most population living on the island are: HI - 100%, obviously; if PR ever becomes a state it will also be 100%. Strangely next one is not Rhode Island  but NY with 50%+ living on an island (primarily NYC area - long island, manhattan, staten island; maybe I am missing some? Grand Island with it's 0.1% of NY population may be added for luls)
UPD: Actually, those listed above account for 49.2% of NYS population as far as I can tell. Is there another big island within  NYC? It's another 200k people.

When I added up the four Long Island counties (Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, and Kings) plus New York and Richmond using Google's population figures, I got 50.07% of the population.  Sure, those counties technically comprise more than Long Island, Manhattan Island, and Staten Island... but only other, smaller, islands.  There's also City Island, but it doesn't add a lot, and it's not needed.  Maybe.  Not sure what the population of mainland Manhattan is.

[cockroachking]

New York is the only state besides Hawaii ...

You must admit, however, that claiming "the majority of people in Hawaii live on an island" is a bit misleading.  It makes it sound like there is a minority in Hawaii who don't live on an island.

Less sensational way of putting it is - states with most population living on the island are: HI - 100%, obviously; if PR ever becomes a state it will also be 100%. Strangely next one is not Rhode Island  but NY with 50%+ living on an island (primarily NYC area - long island, manhattan, staten island; maybe I am missing some? Grand Island with it's 0.1% of NY population may be added for luls)
UPD: Actually, those listed above account for 49.2% of NYS population as far as I can tell. Is there another big island within  NYC? It's another 200k people.

When I added up the four Long Island counties (Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, and Kings) plus New York and Richmond using Google's population figures, I got 50.07% of the population.  Sure, those counties technically comprise more than Long Island, Manhattan Island, and Staten Island... but only other, smaller, islands.  There's also City Island, but it doesn't add a lot, and it's not needed.  Maybe.  Not sure what the population of mainland Manhattan is.

The City Island population is roughly just under half of the Marble Hill population. Adding islands such as Van Schaick Island would probably negate Marble Hill.

[index]

I actually ran some numbers with a mapping/GIS tool after seeing a few posts asking which states came in what place, and this is what I came up with for states with the most people on islands by percent:

This includes true islands, areas of land which are functionally islands (connected to land but only accessible by bridge over water or via ferry), and peninsulas which were formerly islands and are still referred to and treated as such.

   
• Hawaii: 100%
• New York: 50.8%
• Alaska: 9.67%
• Rhode Island: 6.55%
• Florida: 4.37%
• South Carolina: 3.99%
• Washington: 2.79%
• Maine: 2.59%
• New Jersey: 1.37%
• Vermont: 1.15%
• Louisiana: 0.99% (This one was a bit tough since the landscape there kind of blurs what is and isn't an island together)
• North Carolina: 0.72%
• Georgia: 0.63%
• Massachusetts: 0.59%
• Maryland: 0.51%
• Alabama: 0.37%
• Texas: 0.34%
• Michigan: 0.22%
• California: 0.20%
• Wisconsin: 0.15%
• West Virginia: 0.138%
• New Hampshire: 0.137%
• Oregon: 0.10%
• Tennessee: 0.08%
• Virginia: 0.058%
• Delaware: 0.056%
• Minnesota: 0.04%
• Connecticut: 0.038%
• Ohio: 0.02%
• Illinois: 0.019%
• Arkansas: 0.016%
• Iowa: 0.0157%
• Pennsylvania: 0.011%
• Mississippi: 0.010%
• Arizona: 0.008%
• Indiana: 0.007%
• Missouri: 0.00003%

And the rest have no population on islands. This probably isn't super accurate, I did a lot of eyeballing and rough estimates as well.

[jlam]

Seahaven Island: 100%

[kirbykart]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Probably not as much as you think. Almost 20 million people for the state, and 20,000 for Grand Island. So a fifth of a percent of NY's island population is on Grand Island.

[webny99]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Probably not as much as you think. Almost 20 million people for the state, and 20,000 for Grand Island. So a fifth of a percent of NY's island population is on Grand Island.

Yet the NB Grand Island bridge carries upwards of 40,000 VPD on peak days. Double that for SB, and the Grand Island bridges carry up to four times as many vehicles in a single day as the entire island has people! That just seems crazy to me, even knowing how much of that traffic is just passing through.

[Rothman]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Probably not as much as you think. Almost 20 million people for the state, and 20,000 for Grand Island. So a fifth of a percent of NY's island population is on Grand Island.

Yet the NB Grand Island bridge carries upwards of 40,000 VPD on peak days. Double that for SB, and the Grand Island bridges carry up to four times as many vehicles in a single day as the entire island has people! That just seems crazy to me, even knowing how much of that traffic is just passing through.

I'd imagine this is true for thousands of smaller communities that have Interstate access across the country.

[JayhawkCO]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Probably not as much as you think. Almost 20 million people for the state, and 20,000 for Grand Island. So a fifth of a percent of NY's island population is on Grand Island.

Well, I didn't think much, but is it the most populated island in NY outside of the NYC area? That's what I was trying to come up with.

[kalvado]

New York is the only state besides Hawaii ...

You must admit, however, that claiming "the majority of people in Hawaii live on an island" is a bit misleading.  It makes it sound like there is a minority in Hawaii who don't live on an island.

Less sensational way of putting it is - states with most population living on the island are: HI - 100%, obviously; if PR ever becomes a state it will also be 100%. Strangely next one is not Rhode Island  but NY with 50%+ living on an island (primarily NYC area - long island, manhattan, staten island; maybe I am missing some? Grand Island with it's 0.1% of NY population may be added for luls)
UPD: Actually, those listed above account for 49.2% of NYS population as far as I can tell. Is there another big island within  NYC? It's another 200k people.

When I added up the four Long Island counties (Suffolk, Nassau, Queens, and Kings) plus New York and Richmond using Google's population figures, I got 50.07% of the population.  Sure, those counties technically comprise more than Long Island, Manhattan Island, and Staten Island... but only other, smaller, islands.  There's also City Island, but it doesn't add a lot, and it's not needed.  Maybe.  Not sure what the population of mainland Manhattan is.

I still get 49.84% after checking all the numbers . It's probably safe to leave it at "about a half" after all.  Looks like LI population is growng faster than NYS in general, so later numbers would favor higher percentage... and I am too lazy to go and dig out by year data

[JayhawkCO]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Probably not as much as you think. Almost 20 million people for the state, and 20,000 for Grand Island. So a fifth of a percent of NY's island population is on Grand Island.

Yet the NB Grand Island bridge carries upwards of 40,000 VPD on peak days. Double that for SB, and the Grand Island bridges carry up to four times as many vehicles in a single day as the entire island has people! That just seems crazy to me, even knowing how much of that traffic is just passing through.

I'd imagine this is true for thousands of smaller communities that have Interstate access across the country.

Perhaps you're referring to Limon? 

[kalvado]

Gotta think Grand Island by Buffalo accounts for at least a chunk of it.

Also, what's state #3? Probably Florida?

Probably not as much as you think. Almost 20 million people for the state, and 20,000 for Grand Island. So a fifth of a percent of NY's island population is on Grand Island.

Well, I didn't think much, but is it the most populated island in NY outside of the NYC area? That's what I was trying to come up with.

It probably is. Until you want to call the slice of Waterford between Mohawk and canal  an island.

[JayhawkCO]

So looks like the Wikipedia article on US Islands also has a population section, with 2010 numbers. Here goes.

State	Island Population	Total Population	Percentage
HI	1360301	1360301	100.00%
NY	9571129	19378102	49.39%
AK	63847	710231	8.99%
RI	67821	1052567	6.44%
WA	167922	6724549	2.50%
ME	30895	1328361	2.33%
SC	52020	4625364	1.12%
NJ	57457	8791894	0.65%
VT	3651	625741	0.58%
DE	4001	897934	0.45%
MA	24451	6547629	0.37%
MD	20813	5773552	0.36%
FL	53540	18801310	0.28%
NC	26508	9535483	0.28%
TX	60991	25145561	0.24%
CA	77512	37253956	0.21%
MI	13337	9883640	0.13%
AL	1371	4779736	0.03%
OR	1078	3831074	0.03%
LA	1005	4533372	0.02%
WI	845	5686986	0.01%

[hotdogPi]

Florida increased by more than 10× from 2010 to 2020? And South Carolina more than tripled.

[tmoore952]

I actually ran some numbers with a mapping/GIS tool after seeing a few posts asking which states came in what place, and this is what I came up with for states with the most people on islands by percent:

This includes true islands, areas of land which are functionally islands (connected to land but only accessible by bridge over water or via ferry), and peninsulas which were formerly islands and are still referred to and treated as such.

By your second definition here, anywhere in Delaware south of C & D Canal would be on an island (only accessible by bridges over water or via ferry). That would include Odessa, Smyrna, Dover and all the beach areas. The Delaware percentage would be significant. Also anywhere in Maryland south of that canal and east of Chesapeake Bay, and all of Virginia east of Chesapeake Bay. In other words, all of Delmarva Peninsula south of that canal.

Earlier, someone mentioned Cape Cod which I believe is in the same category due to a canal.

I assume that canals don't count, since they are manmade? The people posting numbers aren't saying that.

[hotdogPi]

Interestingly, Ísland is an island, but only by complete coincidence.

[JayhawkCO]

Florida increased by more than 10× from 2010 to 2020? And South Carolina more than tripled.

The only islands included in the list for Florida are Amelia, Key Largo, Marco, Pine, and Sanibel. I'm sure it's probably missing some. (Key West obviously comes to mind.)