Two ways to watch 220 years of settlement across all 82 counties. Absolute population plots a dot for every ~600 residents, so dots multiply as the state grows. Share of state draws a heat map of how the population is distributed each census. A third view, Peak decade, colors every county by the census when it hit its all-time population high. Press play to watch people redistribute toward Jackson's suburbs, the Gulf Coast, and DeSoto County near Memphis even as the Delta and cotton counties fade.
1800
This census
State population–
Counties counted–
Largest county–
Legend
Each dot ≈ 600 people. Dots multiply as the state's population grows.
Share of the state's population, per area — rebalanced to the total at each census.
sparseconcentrated
Each county is shaded by the census when its population peaked — pale = long ago, deep orange = recent. Count of counties in parentheses.