This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[Scott5114]

California isn't very densely populated, though (think your miles upon miles of suburbia there, compared to metro NYC, which falls within the circle Chris used), and is also mountainous.

[webny99]

Due to international borders it's easy to overlook how densely populated northwestern Europe is.

Southeastern Netherlands is a logistics hotspot, because you can reach nearly 150 million people within a 500 km / 6 hour truck driving radius.
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By comparison, if you drop a point near Philadelphia, you get less than half that in a 500 km  (300 mi) radius: 68 million people.
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Tool: https://www.freemaptools.com/find-population.htm

That's a cool tool!

You're not going to find anywhere in North America with 150 million people in a 500 km radius, but there are plenty of places that can do better than Philadelphia. Here's a few examples:

Binghamton, NY: 84,030,730
Scranton, PA: 82,733,220
Syracuse, NY: 82,542,770
Rochester, NY: 81,752,040

California isn't very densely populated, though (think your miles upon miles of suburbia there, compared to metro NYC, which falls within the circle Chris used), and is also mountainous.

California's suburbia (including both LA and San Fran here) is much more dense than NYC's suburbia. NYC suburbs in places like Rockland County, NY, and Somerset County, NJ feel rural by comparison to anything in California.

[Scott5114]

California isn't very densely populated, though (think your miles upon miles of suburbia there, compared to metro NYC, which falls within the circle Chris used), and is also mountainous.

California's suburbia (including both LA and San Fran here) is much more dense than NYC's suburbia. NYC suburbs in places like Rockland County, NY, and Somerset County, NJ feel rural by comparison to anything in California.

Not the point–you won't find anything as densely populated as Manhattan in California, is what I'm saying. And even if you drop it on something like downtown San Francisco, you're not going to have a Boston or Philadelphia in the circle too.

[webny99]

California's suburbia (including both LA and San Fran here) is much more dense than NYC's suburbia. NYC suburbs in places like Rockland County, NY, and Somerset County, NJ feel rural by comparison to anything in California.

Not the point–you won't find anything as densely populated as Manhattan in California, is what I'm saying. And even if you drop it on something like downtown San Francisco, you're not going to have a Boston or Philadelphia in the circle too.

Maybe you won't find any single area as dense as Manhattan, but the overall density of the LA/San Fran areas would be higher.

To the original point about California being mountainous, I don't think we'd be using anything in California as part of the zone of 150 million... it would presumably be the East Coast only.

[SkyPesos]

Due to international borders it's easy to overlook how densely populated northwestern Europe is.

Southeastern Netherlands is a logistics hotspot, because you can reach nearly 150 million people within a 500 km / 6 hour truck driving radius.



By comparison, if you drop a point near Philadelphia, you get less than half that in a 500 km  (300 mi) radius: 68 million people.



Tool: https://www.freemaptools.com/find-population.htm

I played around with the tool a bit to see where the most populous 500 km radius would be. Got a couple of results in China above 300 million:
Center in Hefei, Anhui: 360.86 million
Center in Anqing, Anhui: 349.41 million
Center in Jinan, Shandong: 342.69 million

[kphoger]

California's suburbia (including both LA and San Fran here) is much more dense than NYC's suburbia. NYC suburbs in places like Rockland County, NY, and Somerset County, NJ feel rural by comparison to anything in California.

Not the point–you won't find anything as densely populated as Manhattan in California, is what I'm saying. And even if you drop it on something like downtown San Francisco, you're not going to have a Boston or Philadelphia in the circle too.

Maybe you won't find any single area as dense as Manhattan, but the overall density of the LA/San Fran areas would be higher.

I'll merely present the data.  Y'all can interpret it.

[webny99]

I'll merely present the data.  Y'all can interpret it.

[snipped]

That... doesn't really change anything I thought originally. No denying that New York, the city, and its immediate surroundings, are extremely dense. Some suburbs are plenty dense, but that's less true the further afield you travel.

The problem - and this is an issue with some of CA's counties in general - is that San Bernardino and Riverside Counties have tremendous populations crammed into a small area and then thousands of empty miles that exist only to drive the density figure into the basement.

[hotdogPi]

Smallest congressional districts by area, after Pennsylvania redistricting but before North Carolina redistricting:

1-9: NY-13, 10, 15, 12, 09, 07, 14, 08, 06
10: CA-12 (San Francisco)
11: CA-34 (Los Angeles)
12: NY-05
13: IL-04 (Chicago)
14: PA-03 (Philadelphia)
15: NJ-08 (more NYC)
16: CA-37 (Los Angeles)
17: CA-40 (Los Angeles)
18: PA-02 (Philadelphia)
19: MA-07 (Boston)
20: NY-11 (Staten Island, the least urban of the five boroughs)
... (list continues; 21-24 are all in the LA area)

All top 9 and 12 of the top 20 are in the NYC area.

[kphoger]

The problem - and this is an issue with some of CA's counties in general - is that San Bernardino and Riverside Counties have tremendous populations crammed into a small area and then thousands of empty miles that exist only to drive the density figure into the basement.

Yes, believe me, that was always on my mind while compiling the data.  But I didn't know how else to approach the problem without using numbers for every single individual town.

[kenarmy]

Greenland is further North, South, East, and West than Iceland.

[JayhawkCO]

Here's a couple. 

Los Angeles to Sydney is longer than San Francisco to Sydney.

And then this map which I find super cool.

https://twitter.com/amazingmap/status/1294654053415354368

Chris

[michravera]

The problem - and this is an issue with some of CA's counties in general - is that San Bernardino and Riverside Counties have tremendous populations crammed into a small area and then thousands of empty miles that exist only to drive the density figure into the basement.

Yes, believe me, that was always on my mind while compiling the data.  But I didn't know how else to approach the problem without using numbers for every single individual town.

I'm not going to get into the "My Daddy Can Whoop Your Daddy" argument, but Calexico and San Diego (both in California) are northern tips of HUGE Mexican icebergs.

[kphoger]

The problem - and this is an issue with some of CA's counties in general - is that San Bernardino and Riverside Counties have tremendous populations crammed into a small area and then thousands of empty miles that exist only to drive the density figure into the basement.

Yes, believe me, that was always on my mind while compiling the data.  But I didn't know how else to approach the problem without using numbers for every single individual town.

I'm not going to get into the "My Daddy Can Whoop Your Daddy" argument, but Calexico and San Diego (both in California) are northern tips of HUGE Mexican icebergs.

San Diego can hardly be called the "tip" of a huge Mexican iceberg.

Tijuana proper = 1.8 million pop.
Tijuana metro = 2.2 million pop.

San Diego proper = 1.3 million pop.
San Diego metro = 3.3 million pop.

[empirestate]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephenlaconte/geography-fun-facts-reddit

[chays]

Mexico is extends further north than Florida. This was a bit surprising to me but I guess it really shouldn't be.

What I found interesting is that Mexico almost extends further north than Louisiana. The difference in latitude is about 20 miles.

If Mexico had been 20 miles further north, it would have been further north, south, east and west, of Louisiana.

[Roadgeekteen]

Mexico is extends further north than Florida. This was a bit surprising to me but I guess it really shouldn't be.

What I found interesting is that Mexico almost extends further north than Louisiana. The difference in latitude is about 20 miles.

If Mexico had been 20 miles further north, it would have been further north, south, east and west, of Louisiana.

If Mexico kept it's old land it would extend as far north as the Midwest and Pennsylvania.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

And almost to the latitude where I live. I'm in Aragon at a latitude which also passes through Oregon. Or was it vice-versa? xD

[GenExpwy]

The north slope of Alaska is closer to Reykjavík, Iceland, than to any other national capital.

[GaryV]

Mexico is extends further north than Florida. This was a bit surprising to me but I guess it really shouldn't be.

What I found interesting is that Mexico almost extends further north than Louisiana. The difference in latitude is about 20 miles.

If Mexico had been 20 miles further north, it would have been further north, south, east and west, of Louisiana.

If Mexico kept it's old land it would extend as far north as the Midwest and Pennsylvania.

And Canada.

[Scott5114]

[hbelkins]

Is that from Terrible Maps?

(And what's the story about the purple blotch in Europe? I've obviously missed something.)

[hotdogPi]

(And what's the story about the purple blotch in Europe? I've obviously missed something.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturs_KriÅ¡jānis_KariņÅ¡

[Dirt Roads]

Countries where the Head of Government is from Delaware

I know this is opening a can of worms, but where I'm from we would say that Joe Biden is from Pennsylvania.  In West Virginia, "growing up" is the most number of years between ages 6 and 12.  He was 11 years old when they moved to Wilmington, Delaware.

[Scott5114]

I know this is opening a can of worms, but where I'm from we would say that Joe Biden is from Pennsylvania.  In West Virginia, "growing up" is the most number of years between ages 6 and 12.  He was 11 years old when they moved to Wilmington, Delaware.

Sure, but he spent 36 years as a US Senator representing Delaware, so he's associated far more with Delaware than Pennsylvania, even if he spent his childhood in Pennsylvania.

[empirestate]

I know this is opening a can of worms, but where I'm from we would say that Joe Biden is from Pennsylvania.  In West Virginia, "growing up" is the most number of years between ages 6 and 12.  He was 11 years old when they moved to Wilmington, Delaware.

The worm I'm most intrigued by is that there's a regional variation on what it means to be "from" somewhere. What are the specifics of this variation?