Random thoughts on geography.

[Vic Vega]

I often hear people toss around stereotypes about "Americans" and that got me thinking about how large the United States actually is and how it compares to other parts of the world. This isn't meant to be a "versus" thread, just some thoughts about geography and scale. I have traveled all over the United States and find that "native" Americans (cultures that have been here many generations regardless of origin) are very diverse indeed. Don't read too much into this thread, it's more of just a collection of thoughts and figures.

The country of Germany is smaller than the US State of Montana (137,847 square miles versus 147,042 square miles), although Germany's population is roughly 80 times that of Montana (80 million versus 1 million).

The country of France is smaller than the US State of Texas (260,558 square miles versus 268,581 square miles), although France's population is roughly 2.5 times than of Texas (65,350,000 versus 26,059,203).

The country of England is roughly the same size as the US State of Pensylvania (50,346 square miles versus 46,055 square miles). Pennsylania is one of the smallest US states ranked at 33rd. England's population is roughly 4 times that of Pennsylvania (53,012,456 versus 12,763,536).

It's easy to see why most Europeans prefer mass transit and smaller vehicles while most Americans prefer highways and larger vehicles. There are fewer of us and we typically have a lot more space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England#cite_note-2011census-5

 

[edro]

More space = more resources

 

[Crono]

Geography determines a lot of our infrastructure and how our economy operates.

We have so much open space in the United States. It's easy to think we are all cities and suburbs until you go out into all the national parks and other highly rural areas with low population density. Our highway system is critical for commuting, whereas Europe and individual small nations can rely on mass transit for the majority of their populations.

 

[zerocool84]

Even just driving outside LA you can get to the empty areas very quickly. We are just pockets of civilization in this country. A large reason why so many of us are culturally and politically divided.

 

[ringtail]

``

 

[Iron Woode]

Even just driving outside LA you can get to the empty areas very quickly. We are just pockets of civilization in this country. A large reason why so many of us are culturally and politically divided.

It is even worse here in Canada.

35 million people in the second largest country in the world. Our population is seriously spread out and somewhat concentrated near the US/Canada border.

 

[ringtail]

It is even worse here in Canada.

35 million people in the second largest country in the world. Our population is seriously spread out and somewhat concentrated near the US/Canada border.

"Somewhat" you say?

I get your understated joke.

It's claimed most Canadians live within 50 miles of the border.

 

[JimmiG]

More space = more resources

Also more resources are needed for infrastructure, transportation etc.

The EU has a population of 500 million over 1,669,807 sq mi vs 316 million and 3,794,101 sq mi for the USA.

For example, here in Europe, highly efficient and fast trains are very common. In the USA people tend to fly more instead. There's also the issue of broadband, cellular coverage etc. A small village in Europe might have 4G and fiber available, where the equivalent village in the USA would barely have working land lines.

Same with public transport. I was surprised to learn that even fairly large cities in the US don't have any public transport on weekends or late evenings. In my town of 150,000, buses run from ~4 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., every 10 minutes in the rush hours, every 15-20 minutes the rest of the day.