Nobody lives here: The nearly 5 million Census Blocks with zero population
A Block is the smallest area unit used by the U.S. Census Bureau for tabulating statistics. As of the 2010 census, the United States consists of 11,078,300 Census Blocks. Of them, 4,871,270 blocks totaling 4.61 million square kilometers were reported to have no population living inside them. Despite having a population of more than 310 million people, 47 percent of the USA remains unoccupied.
Green shading indicates unoccupied Census Blocks. A single inhabitant is enough to omit a block from shading.
Update Jan 2015: Prints and canvas of the Nobody Live Here map are now available.
Update 2014.05.01: I’ve received a couple questions about Canada. Just to be clear, this map is of the United States only. It is based on 2010 data published by the U.S. Census Bureau, which for reasons I hope are apparent, does not include data on our friends in the Great White North. For a similar depiction of Canada, see this map whipped up by Michael Chung.
Nobody lives here: The nearly 5 million Census Blocks with zero population