This Is The Most Densely Populated City In America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 28, 11:07AM EDT

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This Is The Most Densely Populated City In America — © Daniel Kloe / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

The population density in the U.S. varies widely by city and state. For example, New Jersey, the most densely populated state, has 1,218 residents per square mile. Alaska, at the other end of the scale, has less than one. Tight populations can strain resources, such as infrastructure. It can also make proximity to key resources, like medical care and retail, more manageable.

Based on information from Governing.com, the least densely populated cities tend to be in the least populated states. Anchorage is one of the least densely populated cities in America, among those with populations over 50,000, at 175 residents per square mile. Its population is 298,192.

The five most densely populated cities in America are all in New Jersey or New York State. New York City, with a population of 8,537,673, is one of them, ranked fourth, at 28,211 residents per square mile. The other four are in the immediate New York City area.

The fifth most densely populated city, with a population of 70,635 and a density of 22,424 people per square mile, is Passaic NJ. Passaic is almost immediately across the Hudson River from New York, between the routes to the Lincoln Tunnel and George Washington Bridge, each of which goes into Manhattan.

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The third is Hoboken NJ, with a population of 54,379, has a density of 42,484 per square mile. Hoboken is immediately across the Hudson River from Manhattan’s Chelsea and Greenwich Village neighborhoods.

Ranked second, West New York NJ, with a population of 53,343, has a population density of 52,815 residents per square mile. It is across the Hudson from Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Ranked first in population density is Union City NJ. It has a population of 69,296, and a population density of 54,138 people per square mile. It sits near the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel across from central Manhattan.

According to the Census, about three-quarters of Union City’s population is Hispanic and about 17% is White. The median household income is $48,992, well below the national average. The poverty rate, at 19.6% is almost twice the national figure.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.