the United States is home to over 330 million Americans making it the third largest country in the world but despite having such a large population some areas never became a migration hot spot in particular this huge part of the northern U. S is home to only two percent of all Americans despite consisting of nearly 20 of the contiguous United States here's why [Music] hello and welcome to geography by Jeff today we're off to explore another weird population distribution pattern in the United States if you didn't know the region we're talking about today largely consists of the Great Plains 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 we see two major Canadian cities in Edmonton and Calgary so why are there no major U. S cities here we're about to find out but before we explore why the U.
S doesn't have a major population Center in this region be sure to check out my podcast geography is everything this week we're going to explore the incredible geography of tea you can listen to that episode right here on YouTube substack or whatever app you use to listen to podcasts [Music] those of you who watch my channel regularly are probably familiar with a video I created a few months ago where I looked at what I called America's empty belt and while that region still leads in terms of having the fewest people in the largest area in the contiguous United States it led me to start looking at the northern region of the country as well an area that I've termed the empty North the empty North I've cobbled together consists of the full states of Montana Wyoming and North Dakota as well as portions of the states of Washington Oregon Idaho Nebraska South Dakota and Minnesota all told the empty north of the United States takes up a gargantuan area of about 553 000 square miles which would equate to nearly 20 percent of all land within the contiguous United States now despite being such a large area consisting of large parts of so many states this entire region has relatively very few people living in it according to the latest U. S census this region is home to approximately 5 0. 6 million Americans to put this in perspective the state of Massachusetts which is about 7 800 square miles or about one percent 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 as the tiny state of Massachusetts the entire region is quite complex the empty North is really a region of two very different halves in the west the rocky mountain range creates a complicated area that quite simply is not the easiest place to settle and in the East the Great Plain sits within a literal rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains that stretches for hundreds of miles it's this exact unique topography that gives Montana its nickname Big Sky country both of these unique geographies combine to create issues in establishing and nurturing large settlements but as we'll find out these are not the only issues keeping people away we'll have to dive a bit into the history of the region to find more exact answers the empty North is an incredible part of the country with some of the most awe-inspiring Landscapes you can think of including five National Park Works despite this however Americans have generally avoided moving to the region at large and there's a reason for this but before we get to why there's so few Americans living in the empty North if you're enjoying this video hit that subscribe button more fun geography videos or just a single click away foreign [Music] the history of this region specifically can be broken out into three major expansionist events within the United States and each of these events ended up in the same manner with the gradual push of Americans from the densely populated Eastern Shore to the Western more rugged and rural areas of the country shortly after the United States won its Warfare independence from Great Britain it found itself with quite a bit of extra land in what was then called the Northwest Territory this was the land that extended all the way from Modern Day Ohio in the East through the Great Lakes region and to the very Northern edge of the state that we call Minnesota today happening at about the same time the United States would purchase the Louisiana Territory from France effectively doubling the amount of land the U.
S would claim to own most of this newly acquired land of course would be in the northern region of the current contiguous United States and finally at the end of it all the US and Great Britain would compete for what was then called the Oregon Country which would eventually be split in half between the two by the middle of the 1800s the U. S would effectively own the entirety of the empty North but this 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 were part of the Northwest Territory Wisconsin Territory Iowa territory Minnesota territory Nebraska territory Oregon Territory Washington territory and the Idaho territory it would take until the late 1800s for the Montana territory Wyoming territory and Dakota territory to be formally organized and if there's one thing that we know about these early territories is that they were usually propped up by boosters within the core settlement of their respective territory these boosters would strive to get people to move to the general area of the major population Center in order to amass an economic Center The Oregon Territory for example despite consisting of modern-day states of Oregon Washington Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming would primarily draw people to the Willamette Valley the home of modern day Portland Oregon Montana Wyoming North and South Dakota didn't have these early boosters same way that many of the other territories did and therefore population lagged during the early push to get Americans to move west [Music] despite not getting very many people in the early days of the American migration to the West 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 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 despite being far smaller in size and the reason for this can kind of be boiled down to two major reasons topography and climate on the western side of the empty North the rugged Rocky Mountain Range breaks up the relatively few areas that would be habitable this creates a natural limiting effect that's not to say that larger cities can't exist in the western portion of the empty North after all the Spokane Metro region home to nearly 600 000 people would comprise the largest city in our region but Spokane also exists just to the west of the Rocky Mountains not within them and this follows a similar pattern for even cities outside of the empty North Denver Colorado Springs Salt Lake City and Boise are all at the base of either the the eastern or western side of the range 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's entirely within the rocky mountain range but is only home to about 117 000 people and of course the other issue at play Within this region is quite simply the climate Americans have proven time and time again that they would rather live in warmer sunnier areas of the country it's for this reason that places such as California Arizona Nevada Texas and Florida have grown tremendously over the last few decades the empty North however can get quite frigid according to the coppin method of determining climate across geographies the entire empty North is a complicated mishmash of cold snowy regions 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 which is interesting because Canadians seem much more tolerant of it foreign while this video is about the empty north of the United States 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 and within Canada those two cities make up the fifth and sixth largest metro regions respectively if the United States had its fifth and sixth largest metro regions within the empty North it would have an additional 13.
