PALIN, WASILLA AND AMERICA

Part of the myth-making about Palin involves describing her as a "real American" or some equivalent. The problem with this approach is that it defies reality. She's from Wasilla, a town of maybe 9,000 people now. That means she's from a small part of America, according to the 2000 Census. Places like Wasilla accounted for about 9% of the population and that's including places up to 50K in size. Places larger than that accounted for almost 70% of the population. Truly rural areas accounted for 20% of the total.

U.S. Population Living in Urban vs. Rural Areas ¹

Geographic Division:	# of Areas	Total Population	Percent of U.S. Total
Total U.S. Population		285,230,516	100
Population living in Urban Areas 2	3,629	225,956,060	79.219
Population living in Rural Areas		59,274,456	20.781
Urban Area Categories:
1. Urbanized Areas over 200,000 population	153	166,215,889	58.274
2. Urbanized Areas 50,000 - 199,999 population	310	29,584,626	10.372
3. Urban Clusters 5,000 - 49,999 population	1838	25,438,275	8.918
4. Urban Clusters 2,500 - 4,999 population	1328	4,717,270	1.654

¹U.S. population is defined as residents of the 50 States, plus the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It does not include residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands or U.S. Pacific Trust Territories.

²Urban areas include all urbanized areas (over 50,000 population) and Urban Clusters (2,500 to 49,999 population) as defined by the Bureau of the Census in the 2000 Decennial Census.

This page last modified on February 9, 2004