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Why So Few Americans Live In This HUGE Area In The Northern Part Of The Country
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Mar 31, 2025
There are a lot of Americans these days. But despite being the world's third largest country by population, there exists a huge area in the northern part of the contiguous USA that is pretty empty. And this is despite the fact that Canada has two major Canadian cities even farther north. So why don't more Americans live in the Empty North?
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The United States is home to over 330 million Americans
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making it the third largest country in the world. But despite having such a large population
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some areas never became a migration hotspot. In particular, this huge part of the northern U.S
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is home to only 2% of all Americans, despite consisting of nearly 20
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of the contiguous United States. Here's why. Hello and welcome to Geography by Jeff
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Today we're off to explore another weird population distribution pattern in the United States
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If you didn't know, the region we're talking about today largely consists of the Great Plains
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on one side and the Rocky Mountains on the other. This might make it seem inhospitable, but if we look even farther north into Canada
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we see two major Canadian cities in Edmonton and Calgary. So why are there no major U.S. cities here
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We're about to find out. But before we explore why the U.S. doesn't have a major population center in this region
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be sure to check out my podcast, Geography is Everything. This week, we're going to explore the incredible geography of tea
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You can listen to that episode right here on YouTube, Substack, or whatever app you use to listen to podcasts
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Those of you who watch my channel regularly are probably familiar with a video I created
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a few months ago where I looked at what I called America's Empty Belt
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And while that region still leads in terms of having the fewest people in the largest
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area in the contiguous United States, it led me to start looking at the northern region
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of the country as well, an area that I've termed the Empty North. The Empty North I've cobbled
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together consists of the full states of Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota, as well as portions of
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the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota. All told, the Empty
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North of the United States takes up a gargantuan area of about 553,000 square miles, which would
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equate to nearly 20% of all land within the contiguous United States. Now despite being such
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a large area consisting of large parts of so many states, this entire region has relatively
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very few people living in it. According to the latest US census, this region is home to approximately
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5 million Americans To put this in perspective the state of Massachusetts which is about 7 square miles or about 1 of the size of the empty north has 7 million Americans But of course while it might seem like the empty north should have at least as many people
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as the tiny state of Massachusetts, the entire region is quite complex
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The empty north is really a region of two very different halves. In the west, the Rocky Mountain Range
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creates a complicated area that quite simply is not the easiest place to settle
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And in the east, the Great Plains sits within a literal rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains
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that stretches for hundreds of miles. It's this exact unique topography that gives Montana its nickname, Big Sky Country
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Both of these unique geographies combine to create issues in establishing and nurturing large settlements
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But as we'll find out, these are not the only issues keeping people away
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We'll have to dive a bit into the history of the region to find more exact answers
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The Empty North is an incredible part of the country with some of the most awe-inspiring landscapes you can think of
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including five national parks. Despite this, however, Americans have generally avoided moving to the region at large
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And there's a reason for this. But before we get to why there's so few Americans living in the empty north
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if you're enjoying this video, hit that subscribe button. More fun geography videos are just a single click away
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The history of this region specifically can be broken out into three major expansionist events
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within the United States. And each of these events ended up in the same manner
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with the gradual push of Americans from the densely populated eastern shore
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to the western, more rugged, and rural areas of the country. Shortly after the United States won its war for independence from Great Britain
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it found itself with quite a bit of extra land in what was then called the Northwest Territory
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This was the land that extended all the way from modern-day Ohio in the east, through the Great Lakes region
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and to the very northern edge of the state that we call Minnesota today. Happening at about the same time
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the United States would purchase the Louisiana Territory from France, effectively doubling the amount of land
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the U.S. would claim to own. Most of this newly acquired land, of course, would be in the northern region
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of the current contiguous United States. And finally, at the end of it all
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the U.S. and Great Britain would compete for what was then called the Oregon Country
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which would eventually be split in half between the two. By the middle of the 1800s
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the U.S. would effectively own the entirety of the empty north. But despite owning this region the core states of Montana Wyoming North Dakota and South Dakota would take quite a long time to get formally organized At one point in time portions of these four states
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were part of the Northwest Territory, Wisconsin Territory, Iowa Territory, Minnesota Territory, Nebraska Territory
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Oregon Territory, Washington Territory, and the Idaho Territory. It would take until the late 1800s
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for the Montana Territory, Wyoming Territory, and Dakota Territory to be formally organized
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And if there's one thing that we know about these early territories, it's that they were usually propped up by boosters
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within the core settlement of the respective territory. These boosters would strive to get people
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to move to the general area of the major population center in order to amass an economic center
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The Oregon Territory, for example, despite consisting of modern-day states of Oregon
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Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming, would primarily draw people to the Willamette Valley
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the home of modern-day Portland, Oregon. Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota
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didn't have these early boosters in the same way that many of the other territories did
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and therefore, population lagged during the early push to get Americans to move west
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Despite not getting very many people in the early days of the American migration to the west
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there's still been plenty of time to get more people to move to the empty north today. After all, Arizona wouldn't even become a full state
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until 1912, when it had about 200,000 people living in it. Today, however, Arizona is home to over 7 million Americans, larger than the entire empty north
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despite being far smaller in size. And the reason for this can kind of be boiled down to two major
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reasons, topography and climate. On the western side of the empty north, the rugged Rocky Mountain
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Range breaks up the relatively few areas that would be habitable. This creates a natural limiting
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effect. That's not to say that larger cities can't exist in the western portion of the empty north
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After all, the Spokane metro region, home to nearly 600,000 people, would comprise the largest city in our region
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But Spokane also exists just to the west of the Rocky Mountains, not within them
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And this follows a similar pattern for even cities outside of the empty north
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Denver, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, and Boise are all at the base of either the eastern or western side of the range
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Even in Montana a rugged and rural state if there ever was one the largest city of Billings is well east of the Rocky Mountains Missoula Montana is perhaps the largest city that entirely within the Rocky Mountain range but is only home to about 117 people
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And of course, the other issue at play within this region is, quite simply, the climate
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Americans have proven time and time again that they would rather live in warmer, sunnier areas of the country
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It's for this reason that places such as California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Florida
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have grown tremendously over the last few decades. The empty north, however, can get quite frigid
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According to the Coppin method of determining climate across geographies, the entire empty north is a complicated mishmash of cold snowy regions
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and cold arid regions and little else in between. The simple reality is that most Americans don't seem to be willing to brave that kind of weather
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which is interesting because Canadians seem much more tolerant of it. While this video is about the empty north of the United States
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It needs to be pointed out that if we look just north of this region into Canada, there exists two major Canadian cities, Calgary and Edmonton
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And within Canada, those two cities make up the 5th and 6th largest metro regions, respectively
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If the United States had its 5th and 6th largest metro regions within the empty north
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it would have an additional 13.5 million people, the size of Houston, Texas, and Washington, D.C
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And while there's definitely a longer video on why Calgary and Edmonton are so large with
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respects their geographic location, it really can be summed up as a byproduct of the Canadian
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oil industry. In the middle of the 1900s, large quantities of oil were discovered outside of
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Edmonton, which brought a large industry to the city. And Calgary made for a convenient location
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for additional oil industry services, as well as an easy location to ship oil to Vancouver, BC
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and then Asia in the west, to Toronto and Montreal in the east, or south to the United States
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The empty north does have oil fields, but ones that aren't nearly as large or as easy to extract
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and therefore it has not garnered nearly the same population around them. The empty north of the United States
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could have more people living in it, but a slow start to settlement, lack of industry
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cold climate, and difficult terrain have all combined to disincentivize Americans moving to this region at large
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And until some of that changes, the empty north will always be, well, kind of empty
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I hope you enjoyed learning about America's empty north. If you did, please subscribe to my channel
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And if you wanna watch more of my videos, you can do so here. Thanks for watching
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See you next time
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