This is a B-I-G Country!

One of the real joys of traveling around the country is seeing what a diverse and beautiful country we have. I wish that others had the chance to see it the way that I’ve been given the opportunity to do.

In my drive around MT last week I was impressed by the natural beauty of the state with vast plains on my right and the soaring Rocky Mountains on my left. One thing I didn’t see was a lot of people. MT is one of the most sparsely populated states in the country with only 910,000 people living in the 145,000 square miles of the state, or 6.3 people/square mile. A state like OH by comparison has 11 million people in 45,000 square miles, or 248 people/square mile.

I wondered how many people would live in MT if it had the same density as OH. A bit of time on the internet and a handy Excel spreadsheet gave me a figure of 36 million!

Now before you get up in arms, I’m not in anyway proposing that MT be populated to that density. It would destroy that natural beauty that I loved to see. I only did the calculation as a curiosity.