Above is a graph displaying the five most populous states in the United States from 1900 to 2013. These states – California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois – combine for 119 million people, 37% of US total population.

What’s striking from the graph above is the growth behavior from California, Texas, and Florida compared to New York and Illinois – the latter leveling off and the former having exponential growth. California and New York had the same population in the mid 1950’s, now California is twice as populous as New York.

State population projects are displayed in the table below. California is expected in grow to 44 million people by 2030, Texas to 31 million, and New York to 22 million.