Question

New York City covers an area of 302.6 square miles. There are 8.54 million people living in New York City. Los Angeles has an area of 503 square miles and has a population of 3.98 million people. How many more people, per square mile, live in New York City verses Los Angeles? Round to the nearest person per square mile.

Answer 1

20,309 people more people per sq mile.

Explanation:

First step is to calculate the population density of both cities, then we'll be able to answer the question.

We're looking for a number of people per sq mile... so we'll divide the population by the area.

New York City: 8.54 million people on 302.6 sq miles

DensityNYC = 8,540,000 / 302.6 = 28,222 persons/sq mile

Los Angeles: 3.98 million people on 503 sq miles

DensityLA = 3,980,000 / 503 = 7,913 persons/sq mile

Then we do the difference... 28,222 - 7,913 = 20,309 people more people per sq mile.

If we were to make the ratio, we'd get 3.57, 3.57 more people in NYC per sq mile compare to LA.