Think you know which states are packed and which are wide open? This higher or lower state population game pits two US states against each other and asks you to pick the one with more residents, using official 2020 Census counts. Some matchups are easy. Others, like Oregon versus Oklahoma, will make you second-guess everything you learned in school.
Every ten years the US Census Bureau counts every person living in the United States, and the April 1, 2020 count is the official snapshot used to divide seats in the House of Representatives. California topped the list with more than 39.5 million people, while Wyoming came in last with fewer than 600,000. In between, plenty of states sit surprisingly close together, which is where this game gets tricky.
Each round shows you one state with its population revealed and a second state with its number hidden. Decide whether the hidden state has a higher or lower population, then see the real figure. Get it right and the hidden state becomes your new anchor, so your streak keeps building. One wrong guess ends the run, so trust your instincts about regions, big cities and growth, and see how many states you can chain together.
Source: US Census Bureau, 2020 Census resident population counts (April 1, 2020)