[masraum]

The problem is that it's tough to compare states directly.

For instance, I don't think you can compare CA to ND. I also don't think that you can compare MA to NE. How about NY to TX, nope, probably not a good comparison.

Comparing based on population, nope, that's no good, because what if the population is very spread out in one state and stacked on top of each other in the other. How about size, nope, because then you could have radically different populations.

The best comparison would probably be population density, but even then, you'd need a way to scale it. If CA has the most folks and is one of the biggest states, that's great, but what if only 1/3 of the state has a ton of population and the rest is mostly wilderness. Then 90% of the people would be in a very different population density situation to the state figured as a whole.