The chart above shows miles of rail per thousand people in US states. North Dakota has by far more miles of rail per person than any other state.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the most rail per capita, North Dakota, and the state with the least, Rhode Island (Hawaii does not have any rail), is 4.93 miles.
- North Dakota has 274.28 times the rail per capita that Rhode Island does.
- Only nine states have more than one mile of rail per thousand inhabitants.
- Only Rhode Island has less than one-tenth of a mile of rail per thousand inhabitants.
- The mean miles of rail for every thousand inhabitants for the US is 0.80 and the median 0.54.
Caveats
- Population data is from 2010.
- Rail length data is from 2013.
- Rail and population data come from different sources.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- Hawaii has no rail network.
Details
North Dakota also happens to have the highest per capita road coverage in the US.
The United States as a whole has 0.45 miles of rail for every thousand inhabitants ranking it under Ohio and above Nevada.
Sources
United States Census Bureau. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016." Accessed December 12, 2017. http://factfinder2.census.gov.
United States Department of Transportation. 2015. "State Transportation by the Numbers." Accessed March 21, 2018. https://www.bts.gov/sites/bts.dot.gov/files/legacy/_entire.pdf.