The least populated county in the continental United States is Loving County, Texas. Oliver Loving, after whom the county would be named, and Charles Goodnight drove cattle through the area in 1866, creating the Goodnight—Loving Trail. Loving was shot by a Comanche native in 1867 and died of gangrene. The area was part of Bexar County from 1837 to 1874, when it became part of Tom Green County.
Eleven people from the area, including Clay Allison, applied to the 19th session of the Texas Legislature to become part of Reeves County. Loving County was created in 1887 by Bill No. There is no cemetery in the county and the only grave in the area is for Shady Davis, a twenty-one-year-old cowboy who was killed by his horse and buried twelve miles from Mentone in the 1920s. The population of the area increased after the discovery of oil and led to the creation of the town of Ramsey.
Loving County was reorganized in 1931, becoming the only county in Texas to be organized twice, and Ramsey was renamed Mentone. The county is three-fifths the size of Rhode Island. In the US, the county has a total area of 677 square miles (1,750 km), of which 669 square miles (1,730 km) are terrestrial and 7.8 square miles (20 km) (1.1%) are covered by water. Water in the area must be imported from Kermit, Texas or Pecos, Texas, because groundwater in the area contains gypsum and the Pecos River was formerly used as water before its salinity increased too much.
The Pecos River is the western boundary of the county and forms the Red Bluff Reservoir along its northwestern border with Reeves County and Eddy County, New Mexico. The land in Loving County is described as flat desert, with some low hills. Desert shrubs, grasslands and cacti abound, with salty cedars along the river. Elevations range from 2,686 to 3,311 feet (819 to 1,009 m) above sea level.
Loving is the smallest county by area in the Permian Basin region. There were three people living in the county, all men in the same house, according to the 1890 United States Census. After the dismantling of Mentone in 1897, there were no settlements in the county until Juanita was created in 1910, which was renamed Porterville. The 1970 United States Census recorded the county as the least populated county in the United States.
Taken together, these counties have about the same number of people as Columbia, South Carolina (the 192nd largest city in the U.S. UU.). The county area was divided from Fergus County to become one of the last 56 counties in Montana. That's why the Lone Star State has 254 counties in total, 95 more than Georgia, the state with the second highest number of counties.
Upon reflection, it becomes clear that Texas and Nebraska constitute the majority of the least populated counties in the United States. With a population of 494 people, McPherson County is the eighth least populated county in the United States. If you don't want to live in a busy city or close to your neighbors, these counties might be a good option for you. The population size range of “small county in the United States” and “large county” in the United States is shown in Table 1, and Table 2 shows how these counties are distributed into the size categories.
The nation's five smallest counties and the five largest counties are listed in Tables 3 and 4, respectively. Some other places with low population densities in the U.S. UU. include several counties in the southern or midwestern states, including Catron County, New Mexico, and Loving County, Texas.
More than half of all residents live in just 143 large counties (in terms of number of residents), according to an analysis by U. In contrast, there are 17 states where the majority of the population resides in large counties, as shown in Figure 1. .
