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?
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Population density is a comparison between how many people live in a given area and the size of that area. California has a lot of people, but it also has a lot of land. It’s about 18 times as large, but it only has about four times as many people. That’s why New Jersey’s population density is higher.
One looks at population, the other looks at population per area of land. Imagine two neighboring lots — one lot is five acres, the other is one acre. On the 5 acre lot live 10 people. On the one acre lot, 4 people live. The larger lot is more populous — 10 vs. 4 people living on it. But the smaller lot is more densely populated — 4 people per acre instead of 2 people per acre on the bigger lot.
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