Above are two maps displaying California. The one on the left is a ‘normal’ map displaying each county by relative area size and colored by population density – red more dense and green less dense.

The map on the right is distorted relative to population size. What is striking is how much of California’s population is concentrated in the Bay Area and Los Angeles/San Diego. The Central Valley (between SF and LA) and Northern California (above San Francisco) despite their large area, make up a small proportion of California’s total population. For comparison, the Bay Area and Los Angeles/San Diego make up 26 million of California’s 38 million residents.