John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints


USA - Frontier Counties

According to the US Census Bureau definition, a county is designated as frontier if it has a population of less than six persons per square mile.

Between the 1990 and 2000 censuses, the following counties (all but one of which are in the West) gained sufficient population to lose frontier status. Together, these counties cover an area approximately the size of the state of Georgia.

Arizona Apache, Coconino, Graham
Colorado Archuleta, Conejos, Crowley, Elbert, Grand, Ouray, Park, Routt
Georgia Echols
Idaho Blaine, Fremont, Washington
Montana Jefferson
New Mexico Rio Arriba, San Miguel
Oregon Crook

The following counties (all of which lie east of the Continental Divide) lost sufficient population to gain frontier status. Their total area is approximately 68,000 square miles.

Kansas Edwards
Michigan Ontonagon
Minnesota Marshall
Montana Hill
Nebraska Sherman
North Dakota Foster
Texas Hansford, Reeves, Wheeler

Between the 1990 census and the 2000 census the net reduction in the area designated as frontier was 4%.

Nearly 40% of the USA, 400 counties with a total population of 4.7 million and a total area of 1.4 million square miles, remains frontier. More than 27% of the contiguous states is frontier. In the industrialised world this figure is only exceeded by Australia and Canada.

Most of the frontier counties are located from the western Great Plains to the Sierra Nevadas and Cascades.


Percentage Forestation of Each American State and Canadian Province

USA - General

Wilderness Areas

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Most recently modified 8-Jul-01