have you ever noticed not a lot of people live in Wyoming some people really aren't sure the cowboy
state actually exists before we go on been there it's a thing Wyoming is the least populated state
they are number 50 when it comes to the National head count 51st if you count Washington DC this
state has the fewest people but comes in as the 10th largest state you only get rankings like
that if there's something wrong with the place here's the thing there's no one major reason
people have avoided Wyoming by all accounts it's an excellent place to live they haven't had a
giant nuclear meltdown it isn't a toxic waste dump they don't share a border with Mississippi
and they've never had a city like Detroit there's no reason a bunch of people don't already live
here so what gives why is Wyoming the least populated state in this video we will look at
10 reasons why Wyoming has 1 16 the population of New York City got it get it good let's take a look
number 10 rugged terrain Wyoming has some of the most rugged terrain this country has
to offer the state is a great Plateau broken by several mountain ranges you have the Wind River
Mountain Range you have the belfuge river valley in the state's northeast corner absorca range Owl
Creek Wind River and the Teton range there's a few other ones but in the north central there's
the Bighorn mountains in the Northeast you got the Black Hills Sierra Madre range now rugged
terrain is something that can be overcome these days but you got to think back to the early days
when the population was growing the mid-1800s or whatever and these mountain ranges in this rugged
terrain really stopped a lot of settlers from calling Wyoming home populations build over time
and with more hospitable Terrain in other states in this area it really stunted Wyoming's growth
number nine harsh weather Wyoming has some pretty harsh weather Wyoming is known for having bitterly
cold Winters with all the mountains and just about any place in that state you're going to
get a good amount of snow Snow's just half the problem the wind is legendary in Wyoming with
an average wind of 21.5 miles per hour Wyoming is the second windiest state in the U.S Wyoming
has a semi-arid and continental climate that's drier and windier than the rest of the country
so this gives it more dramatic temperature swings when you look at the 10 states with
the lowest average temperature Alaska is 28 degrees Fahrenheit North Dakota's 41. Minnesota
is 41.8 Maine is 41.9 Wyoming is 42.3 degrees so they're the fifth coldest state in the U.S
now once you get past all the colds you got some decent summers at least until Wildfire
season starts then you got some really bad air quality and you got to worry about your Ranch
burning to the ground and that wind continues during Wildfire season and that just helps it
spread and the weather has definitely kept a lot of people away from this state over the years or
if they did move there they last maybe a year and head on back to wherever they came from
number eight no big cities now some people see this as a good thing I'm one of them I could
really do without a major city I grew up in the Los Angeles metro area and I'm about done with
large cities you don't have major cities it kind of hurts your growth it's just one less
thing that people are looking for when they're looking for a new location yes some people do
need a big city for whatever their job they're doing a lot of jobs are in major cities obviously
that's becoming less and less of a thing these days with the internet and people working from
home but there is still a ton of jobs that you're only going to find in major cities and this back
in the day stunted the growth of Wyoming let me give you some comparison on population numbers
from some other cities in the U.S Los Angeles has 3.8 million residents now their entire
metro area has about 13 million Portland Oregon where I currently live they've got about 641
000 Denver which isn't too far away from Wyoming has 711 000. Denver's metro area has like 3
million residents the club closest major city to Wyoming is Salt Lake City and the city itself
has a population of over two hundred thousand with about 1.2 million living in the metro area
Cheyenne is Wyoming's largest city they have 65 000 people that's it no metro area numbers that's
their entire city they are followed by Casper with 58 000 Gillette with 32 Laramie with 31
000 and Rock Springs with 23 000. they don't have a lot of people living here
number seven limited available land yeah even though it's a pretty big state not all the land
is available to people like homesteaders and developers large portions of Wyoming
are owned by Massive ranches Native American reservations U.S government facilities energy
companies own a ton of Wyoming now does this mean there's a housing shortage no
what I'm saying is big companies that build whole communities and things like that they
don't have as many options as they might let's say in Montana Utah South Dakota North
Dakota places like that so this has kind of stunted their growth over the decades
number six lack of water yeah they've got a real water problem you'd think being this far
north they wouldn't but Wyoming has a serious lack of surface water Wyoming has suffered from
droughts for as long as anyone can remember the University of Wyoming Water Resource data system
indicates that the cowboy state has been into moderate to severe drought since 1999. if the
state starts building giant communities or cities start expanding this will just exasperate the
situation in case you don't know there are three things human beings need water food and internet
number five lack of Industries Wyoming does have some Industries but they aren't industries that
employ a whole bunch of people in most cases natural resources tourism and outdoor recreation
and agriculture those are the three big industries in Wyoming now they have all Industries you could
think of but not on a large scale that would draw in more people to the state they don't have a ton
of manufacturing since they don't have giant cities and a whole bunch of people they don't
have many restaurants or retail locations public schools are usually big employer to
just about any City but they don't have giant cities with giant school districts like you'd
find in Los Angeles or Washington something like that now they do have great schools and great
colleges they just don't have a lot of them there's no need there's not a lot of people
number four it's really only for the outdoor types yeah Wyoming is known to be an outdoor
Haven if you like to hunt fish hike Camp nature photography that all happens in Wyoming and a
lot of people that are into that will move to Wyoming because they want to be near what they
like to do the thing is not everyone's into that and if you move to Wyoming and you're
not the outdoor type the state's best feature is completely lost on You Some people prefer
to do things indoors in cities and things like that actually more people in the United States
would prefer to live near some kind of metro area than not and I'm not saying there's anything wrong
with living near outdoor activities and forests and things like that I love that it's just most
people in this country view camping the same way they View getting their wisdom teeth pulled
number three they don't promote it yeah Wyoming doesn't really promote the state like a lot of
other states do most states have a serious push to get people and industries into the
state Wyoming's kind of like yeah we're okay not saying they don't run those ads you just
never see them they're not as active as a lot of the other states most people don't
realize that if you're in California right now you're going to hear ads on the radio you're
going to see TV commercials you'll even see Billboards trying to attract you to move to
Texas or Colorado Arizona places like that now the locals can't stand the fact that all these
Californians are moving to their state and they get mad at The Californians like how
about you get mad at your state and local officials who have these programs to lure
Californians and Californian Industries to your state Wyoming doesn't really do much of that
number two low diversity now we always get a bunch of comments in the comments section of any video
where this is brought up that diversity is not a good thing just all kinds of nonsense here's
the thing it matters to a lot of people I know if you're living in a trailer in the Oklahoma Outback
and you don't want to hear about diversity and you think it's bad and all that that's fine you
do your thing maybe keep it to yourself but here's the thing more people in the United States care
about diversity than don't care about diversity there's a lot of reasons this is a big thing for
people one like I've always said I think when you got a lot of diversity you have a lot of good food
a lot of great festivals things like that well if you've got low diversity it sort of looks like an
unfriendly place to a lot of diverse type people our last video was about the whitest states in
the U.S Wyoming is 92.5 percent white they don't have a lot of different types of communities and
this of course has stunted the growth of Wyoming because a lot of people can't find their own types
of people and their own types of communities in Wyoming now I know someone's gonna leave a comment
about some city or town in Wyoming that has a strong this or that well I'm sure they do but
overall and compared to other states they really don't all right before we get to number one don't
forget we have another Channel called on this day there's a link down below all the proceeds
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to go over there and subscribe watch some videos we'd really appreciate it alright on number one
and number one it's horrible for dating yes this has stunted the growth of Wyoming in a
big way there's no one to date when you don't have a bunch of people you have less options
when you have less options you end up dating the same people and in Wyoming's case there's
a good chance you could be related to someone you swipe right on it's just the odds of it happening
eventually Business Insider ranked them as the 45th worst place for dating opportunities they
rank them for dating economics as the 15th worst place and their romance and fun 41st Place overall
they came in as the fourth worst state for dating out of all 50 states I've mentioned that before in
a passive video we did about dating and you know chances of getting married in each state and the
biggest state that I got the comments from the most was Wyoming and it was always females they
did not have anything nice to say about their dating prospects in Wyoming it was actually
kind of entertaining to read all the different comments one girl said she'd been going on this
dating spree after for a breakup and she was on like Tinder one of those things and she
went out on a date with a guy and she ended up going back to his apartment and everything was
fine nothing really happened she said but like two weeks later she went on another date it was
his roommate she went back to the same apartment a few months later she had another date it was
the guy that lived below those two guys in the same apartment building now if you just
heard me say that and you're from Alaska you're probably going yeah and why is that unusual they
have the same problem so how does that affect the population well a lot of people will move
out if they don't really have a lot of dating prospects or the chance to meet a decent person
to marry that does bother a lot of people a lot of single people and divorces over the years
have left Wyoming because of limited options that is severely stunted the state's growth
all right that's today's video hope you guys enjoyed it hope you got some information out
of it Wyoming's a great state it's just a lot of things especially in the early days have slowed
their growth so they're just lagging behind every other state but hey if none of those things bother
you probably a great state for you all right everyone have a great day be nice to each other