What is the difference between “most populous” and “most densely populated”?

Question

For example, according to my research, California is the “most populous” state in the country but New Jersey shows up as the “most densely populated” state. I thought the latter essentially meant “the state with the biggest population” (same as the former). How do they differ? Are they related in any way?

In: 0

Answer 1

Imagine you have two states. One has 10 residents and a landmass of 10 square miles. The other has 5 residents but only 1 square mile of land.

The first is the most populous (10 vs 5 residents), while the second is the more densely populated because it has 5 people per square mile compared to the other state that only has 1 person per square mile.