Most Populous States in America (2026 Rankings)

California, Texas, and Florida are the three most populous US states, together accounting for roughly 28% of the American population. The twenty states ranked below cover over four in five people living in the country.

Top 20 States by Population

The Concentration of Population

The United States is not evenly populated. The top 20 states above account for roughly 251,556,913 of the country's residents, more than four out of every five Americans. The ten least populous states combined have fewer people than New York City alone.

This concentration shapes political power. Each state gets two US senators regardless of size, but House seats and Electoral College votes track population. The 2020 census redistribution moved seats toward Texas, Florida, and North Carolina and away from New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, and population growth since then suggests further shifts after 2030.

Why the Sun Belt Keeps Growing

Most of the top-20 population growth over the past decade has come from Sun Belt states, Texas, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Arizona, Nevada, and Tennessee. Domestic migration, driven by housing costs, tax policy, and climate preference, is the dominant factor. California and New York remain huge by absolute population but have lost residents on net to other states every year since the pandemic.

Immigration patterns also reinforce regional concentration. Most new arrivals settle in metropolitan areas of Texas, Florida, California, New York, and Illinois, where existing immigrant communities make integration easier.

How These Numbers Are Counted

The population figures here come from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year estimates, not the decennial census. The ACS is an ongoing survey of roughly 3.5 million households annually, and five-year estimates pool responses to produce statistically reliable numbers for every state, county, city, and ZIP code. See our ACS methodology explainer for detail.

Related Rankings

For the full list of all 50 states plus DC by population, see the largest states ranking. To explore individual states, visit the states directory. For the population of every US city ranked, see largest cities in America.