Air Travel per Capita in US States

Dec 19, 2018
Air Travel per Capita in US States

The map above shows the number of passengers that traveled by air for every resident in each US state.  Hawaii is the only state to have more than ten air passengers for every resident in the state.

Findings

  • The difference between the state with the greatest number of per capita air travelers, Hawaii, and the state with the least (that has commercial airports), West Virginia, is 12.52.
  • Hawaii has 67.87 times the number of per capita air travelers that West Virginia does.
  • The median number of per capita air travelers in the 50 US states is 1.63 and the mean is 2.46.

Caveats

  • Travel data is from 2017.
  • Population data is from 2010.
  • All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
  • The map is presented in an Albers equal-area conic projection.
  • The choropleth classification is based on Jenks or natural breaks.

Details

California which has the most air travelers overall, ranks 15th when its population is taken into account.  The other two leaders in the overall metric, Florida and Texas, rank sixth and 13th in this metric, respectively.

Sixteen states have less air passengers than population (in descending order of per capita passengers): Wyoming, Maine, Vermont, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Ohio, New Hampshire, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Delaware.  West Virginia and Delaware have the dubious distinction of ranking in the final two both in overall passengers (49th and 50th respectively) and per capita passengers (49th and 50th respectively).

Of the seven states with a population over 10 million, Florida has more than four times its population in air travelers, Illinois and Texas have more than three, California and New York have more than two, Pennsylvania has more than one, and Ohio has less than one.

Of the six states with more than 50 million air passengers, Georgia has more than five times its population in air travelers.  Florida has more than four, Illinois and Texas have more than three, and California and New York have more than two.

Georgia is the only state to rank in the top five in both overall air passengers and per capita air passengers.  Florida and Illinois are the only other two to rank in the top ten in both metrics.

Alaska rises the most spots when comparing per capita air travelers to total air travelers.  It ranks 29th in total air travelers, but rises up to third when its population is taken into account, thus rising 26 spots.  On the other end, Ohio drops the most as it ranks 24th in total air travelers but only 41st in per capita air travelers, thus dropping 17 spots.

Data

StateAir TravelersPopulation
Alabama2,347,7594,817,786
Alaska4,828,043710,231
Arizona24,466,3016,392,017
Arkansas1,809,4242,915,918
California110,274,80637,253,956
Colorado31,704,7665,029,196
Connecticut3,193,3163,574,097
Delaware0897,934
Florida84,921,46118,801,310
Georgia51,904,2619,687,653
Hawaii17,286,1421,360,301
Idaho2,174,6651,567,582
Illinois50,762,84112,830,632
Indiana5,224,0566,483,802
Iowa1,964,0273,134,693
Kansas913,2222,853,118
Kentucky6,154,5164,339,367
Louisiana7,180,8654,533,372
Maine1,261,8981,328,361
Maryland13,059,5595,773,552
Massachusetts19,031,7586,547,629
Michigan19,720,9689,883,640
Minnesota18,783,8345,303,925
Mississippi881,6342,967,297
Missouri13,451,2845,988,927
Montana2,003,837989,415
Nebraska2,485,4341,826,341
Nevada25,555,5162,700,551
New Hampshire1,084,6891,316,470
New Jersey22,487,5428,791,894
New Mexico2,604,8842,059,179
New York52,340,30719,378,102
North Carolina30,171,6059,535,483
North Dakota1,046,165672,591
Ohio10,006,61611,536,504
Oklahoma3,347,0223,751,351
Oregon10,794,2503,831,074
Pennsylvania20,184,80012,702,379
Rhode Island1,973,3241,052,567
South Carolina4,707,2134,625,364
South Dakota899,061814,180
Tennessee10,648,4506,346,105
Texas81,210,63325,145,561
Utah11,863,6632,763,885
Vermont583,038625,741
Virginia26,978,2078,001,024
Washington25,359,3296,724,540
West Virginia346,9551,852,994
Wisconsin5,177,5565,686,986
Wyoming560,688563,626

Sources

Federal Aviation Authority.  2018.  "Enplanements of All Commercial Service Airports (by Rank)."  Accessed November 26, 2018.  https://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy17-commercial-service-enplanements.pdf.

United States Census Bureau.  September 2012.  "United States Summary: 2010: Population and Housing Unit Counts."  Accessed January 23, 2018.  https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/cph-2-1.pdf.

Filed under: Cartography