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We’ve already had the top ten list of the cities with the highest population, and we can use this information to come up with the major population centers with the help of the US Census BureauCensus Bureau’s wonderful map of population density.

Fig. 1.2

Population density

megalopolisThe dark areas are those with the most people per square kilometer (or per square mile if you like). You can thus probably identify fairly easily the major megalopolisesmegalopolises (a fancy word for large urbanized areas, the Rhine-Ruhr area is a good example in GermanyGermany): BosWashBosWash from BostonBoston south to Washington in the northeast, ChiPittsChiPitts from ChicagoChicago to PittsburgPittsburg, thus from the Great LakesGreat Lakes eastwards to PennsylvaniaPennsylvania, and SanSanSanSan on the west coast from San DiegoSan Diego northwards through Los AngelesLos Angeles and ending in San FranciscoSan Francisco.

US population movementWe learned a bit earlier that the movement of population can cause changes in one level of American government, the congressional districtscongressional districts, as long as each member of CongressCongress always represents roughly the same number of people. We can easily see the movement of population within the US by comparing the number of members in the House of RepresentativesHouse of Representatives between the 2000 and the 2010 censuscensus (Fig. 1.3).

Fig. 1.3

Population change

Perhaps it’s not so surprising that people have been moving from parts of the country with uncomfortable climate conditions [18]and economic problems like those in the northeast or around the Great LakesGreat Lakes, an area sometimes called the Rust BeltRust Belt, to parts of the country with sunshine and jobs like those in the south and southwest, areas that have become known as the Sun BeltSun Belt.