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245 million people live outside the West. Minus 25 million living in Appalachia, 10 million in the Great Plains and 15 million in New England, heck even 20 million in NY (high PA and OH land is counted in Appalachia) and that's still more than half the Americans. So it might not even be 1,000 feet.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The national Academy of Sciences and others have done very detailed studies of that. This is global, but interesting reading, though some people may get a headache. We live at about 600'.
The global median is 194 feet, and I would be surprised if it is much higher than that in the USA. But it's probably a little higher, since the USA is a large interior continent that has a substantial numbef or important cities far back from the coasts, thanks to its many navigable waterways..
The global median is 194 feet, and I would be surprised if it is much higher than that in the USA. But it's probably a little higher, since the USA is a large interior continent that has a substantial numbef or important cities far back from the coasts, thanks to its many navigable waterways..
I'd guess the majority of New Englanders live at less than 1000 feet. Anywhere near the coast is close to sea level, and most of the interior towns and cities are in valleys; it's only the rural population where some are at higher elevation. Upstate NY west of the Hudson River would have a higher elevation; it's more of a plateau (many valleys are at a 1000 feet or only slightly less). But the larger cities — Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo are below the plateau, though the Great Lakes are a bit higher than the coast around 500 feet.
I'd guess the majority of New Englanders live at less than 1000 feet. Anywhere near the coast is close to sea level, and most of the interior towns and cities are in valleys; it's only the rural population where some are at higher elevation. Upstate NY west of the Hudson River would have a higher elevation; it's more of a plateau (many valleys are at a 1000 feet or only slightly less). But the larger cities — Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo are below the plateau, though the Great Lakes are a bit higher than the coast around 500 feet.
I knew that. Rhode Island is 1 million, over 8 million people live in NYC, 3 million in the Long Island suburbs. Even without bothering to subtract them it's still over half the population. Millions live in the low parts of SoCal, the Bay Area, Portland or Seattle and they shouldn't be in the above average area either.
I like how this map also has major roads so you can see where the cities are located. The entire Eastern half of the country is green for lower elevations, and also in this Eastern half is where most Americans live so it's pretty obvious it's going to skew towards those elevations (it's also pretty evident on the map by the bigger amount of freeways on the right half, and the amount of black dots of course). What is also green is the West Coast cities from Seattle to San Diego, and also Phoenix is at sea level as you can see (most people think Phoenix is higher in elevation, which is not true). I'm going to make an assumption that the biggest cities in the brown region are Salt Lake City and Denver by population. The brown region is probably the most undeveloped part of the mainland. Denver has more people than SLC and Denver doesn't even surpass Phoenix on population, and of course you throw in the other much bigger, lower elevation cities like Los Angeles and NYC and the high-altitude cities don't stand a chance. Since most people live on or near the coast it's probably less than 1000 feet I would agree.
If this was average altitude by the land itself I would expect it to be a higher value, but it's probably not too much difference.
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