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HUNIH22 t1_j9tj7r7 wrote

I moved from Iowa to New Jersey a few months ago - this is hilarious! But also it’s strange to me there are so few counties. We have 99 counties in Iowa. 😱

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CockercombeTuff t1_j9tn3w3 wrote

Iowa = 55,857sqmi, NJ = 8,723 sqmi. Larger by a factor of over 6. Population density is where we go gonzo on every other state...

Given that population density, NJ counties are fairly large, but I figure that has a lot to do with factors like historical development patterns, major transportation routes, and land use (e.g., farming). I'm originally from Monmouth County and it's wild how disparate the different areas are.

By the way, any chance you've ever done RAGBRAI? A friend in New Orleans (where I used to live) told me about it; he's gone a few times. Hoping one day to give it a go.

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HUNIH22 t1_j9u1ho7 wrote

RAGBRAI is awesome!! I’ve never done it but have lots of friends and family that participate. Definitely worth the trip

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PolentaApology t1_j9tpx9o wrote

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Iowa

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_New_Jersey

  • Polk County, Iowa contains the city of Des Moines, which is also the capital and most populated city in Iowa. Polk has about the same number of people as Burlington County, and the same area as Atlantic County.

  • Bergen County has less area than Iowa's smallest county, Dickinson. But its population is about double Polk County's.

  • Salem is the least-populated NJ county, but it has nearly as many people as Iowa's Adams, Ringgold, Audubon, Taylor, Osceola, Wayne, Fremont, Ida, Pocahontas, Van Buren, and Worth counties, combined.

  • Those eleven counties have about 5,300 square miles total. New Jersey has about 7,300 square miles of land area, statewide.

Finally, New Jersey has more counties than Iowa per square mile of area, but Iowa has more counties per capita.

state pop (approx) sq mi land area # of counties counties per million people counties per thousand sq mi
NJ 9,288,994 7,354 21 2.2 2.85
IA 3,190,369 55,857 99 31.0 1.77
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HUNIH22 t1_j9u1jc1 wrote

Super interesting! Thanks for the comparison

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