Wyoming - The Least Populous State in the Union
Wyoming holds roughly 580,000 residents, which makes it the least populous state in the country even though it ranks 10th by land area at nearly 98,000 square miles. The resulting density of about six people per square mile is the lowest in the lower 48. Cheyenne, in the southeast corner near the Colorado border, is both the capital and the largest city with about 65,000 people. Casper, on the North Platte River in the center of the state, is second with roughly 58,000. The university town of Laramie and the energy town of Gillette round out the largest urban centers, though none of them would register as a suburb in a coastal metro.
Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872 as the first national park anywhere in the world, sits mostly in northwestern Wyoming with small extensions into Montana and Idaho. Grand Teton National Park lies directly south of Yellowstone along the Teton Range, and Jackson Hole in the valley below has become one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country. Devils Tower in the northeast was the first National Monument, designated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. These four destinations together draw more than eight million visitors a year, a figure roughly fourteen times the state's permanent population.
Energy extraction dominates the state economy. Wyoming is the country's leading coal producer, with the Powder River Basin in the northeast yielding roughly 40 percent of all U.S. coal output. The state also produces significant oil and natural gas, and the Green River Basin in the southwest contains the largest known deposits of trona, the sodium carbonate mineral that is refined into soda ash for glass and chemicals. Cattle ranching on public and private land fills in much of the rest of the working landscape, and the Cowboy State nickname is earned rather than branded.
Wyoming has no state income tax, and its fiscal structure leans heavily on severance taxes from minerals. The state was the first in the country to grant women the right to vote when it adopted women's suffrage as a territory in 1869, and it kept that provision when it entered the Union in 1890, which is the origin of its "Equality State" motto.
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Wyoming holds roughly 580,000 residents, which makes it the least populous state in the country even though it ranks 10th by land area at nearly 98,000 square miles. The resulting density of about six people per square mile is the lowest in the lower 48. Cheyenne, in the southeast corner near the Colorado border, is both the capital and the largest city with about 65,000 people. Casper, on the North Platte River in the center of the state, is second with roughly 58,000. The university town of Laramie and the energy town of Gillette round out the largest urban centers, though none of them would register as a suburb in a coastal metro.
Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872 as the first national park anywhere in the world, sits mostly in northwestern Wyoming with small extensions into Montana and Idaho. Grand Teton National Park lies directly south of Yellowstone along the Teton Range, and Jackson Hole in the valley below has become one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country. Devils Tower in the northeast was the first National Monument, designated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. These four destinations together draw more than eight million visitors a year, a figure roughly fourteen times the state's permanent population.
Energy extraction dominates the state economy. Wyoming is the country's leading coal producer, with the Powder River Basin in the northeast yielding roughly 40 percent of all U.S. coal output. The state also produces significant oil and natural gas, and the Green River Basin in the southwest contains the largest known deposits of trona, the sodium carbonate mineral that is refined into soda ash for glass and chemicals. Cattle ranching on public and private land fills in much of the rest of the working landscape, and the Cowboy State nickname is earned rather than branded.
Wyoming has no state income tax, and its fiscal structure leans heavily on severance taxes from minerals. The state was the first in the country to grant women the right to vote when it adopted women's suffrage as a territory in 1869, and it kept that provision when it entered the Union in 1890, which is the origin of its "Equality State" motto.
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