Where is the center of population of each state?

What a center of population is

The Census Bureau defines it as the point where a flat, rigid, weightless map of the 50 states and DC would balance if a weight of the same size were placed at the home of every person. It moves as people move, and the Census Bureau reports that the 2020 center is the farthest west and south it has been, 11.8 miles west and south of the 2010 center. The nearest incorporated place is Hartville, a town of 594 residents in Wright County, Missouri.

How the county version is computed

The official center uses census blocks, units far smaller than counties. This site has county data, so it treats every county's residents as if they all lived at the county's internal point:

mean latitude  = Σ(pop · lat) / Σ pop
mean longitude = Σ(pop · lon · cos lat) / Σ(pop · cos lat)

The cosine term gives each degree of longitude its real east-west width, which shrinks toward the poles. With 2024 estimates the national result is 37.343° N, 92.280° W. The 6 mile gap from the official point comes from two sources: counties are coarse, and four years of population change have passed since the 2020 census.

Where people are vs where the land is

For each state the table also computes a land center: the same average, weighted by land area instead of people. The gap between the two shows how lopsided settlement is. Alaska has the largest gap, 187 miles, and Tennessee the smallest, 3.6 miles. The capital closest to its state's population center is Concord, 1.3 miles away; the farthest is Juneau, 437 miles away.

Population centers of the states

Limits of the county method

In a state with a few large counties, the county method can be off by tens of miles, because a whole county's residents are placed on one point. It works best in states with many small counties. Treat the table as a comparison between states, not as a surveyed point. To find the center of your own list of places, use the geographic center finder, or read the midpoint guide for the two point case.

Worked example: Colorado

Colorado has 64 counties. Weighting each internal point by its 2024 population puts the population center at 39.534° N, 105.064° W, 15 miles from the capitol in Denver. Weighting by land instead puts the land center at 38.974° N, 105.550° W. The two are 47 miles apart, because the most populous counties, led by El Paso County, cover a small share of the state's land. The Colorado county page lists the counties behind the numbers.

Where the national center sits

The nearest county internal point to the county-method center is in Missouri, the same state as the official 2020 point. The Census Bureau reports that the 2020 center sits 11.8 miles west and south of the 2010 one. This site's figure uses the latest county estimates, so comparing it after each data rebuild shows how the balance point shifts between censuses.