This map of the United States, entitled “Nobody Lives Here”, highlights areas in the country that are uninhabited.
The areas highlighted in green are those without people living in them. This is measured in units called blocks, defined as “the smallest area unit used by the U.S. Census Bureau for tabulating statistics”. Out of more than 11 million blocks, 4.8 million have no occupants. That’s a total of 4.6 million square kilometers or 47 percent of U.S. land.
The map’s creator, Nikolaus M. Freeman, said that areas are uninhabited due to different reasons. He says that these places are those where humans cannot normally survive, including:
- Bodies of water
- Mountains and deserts
- Wilderness protection and recreational areas
- Commercial and industrial areas
Freeman says that the East Coast of mainland U.S. has more inhabited areas (white), so the unoccupied ones are fewer and can easily be seen. The West Coast, on the other hand, has more uninhabited land, adding that “population centers stand out against the wilderness”; the same can be said for Alaska and Hawaii.
Let’s take a journey in these empty spaces by browsing these books:
- Abandoned Wisconsin: The Demise of America’s Dairyland
- Abandoned Northwest Florida
- Abandoned Southern Colorado and the San Luis Valley
- Abandoned Resorts of the Northeast
- Forgotten Virginia: Abandoned Places and Things in the Old Dominion
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