Hi mister_burns,
The CIA World Factbook estimates the human population of the United
States to be 298,444,215 as of July 2006.
CIA ? The World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#People
Now, there is virtually no hard data on the squirrel population in the
United States. There are a few mentions of population density, and I
did happen to find that the Missouri Department of Conservation lists
2 to 3 squirrels per acre as a fairly high population density. We can
use this to make a rough estimation though. Most other sources I
found provided similar population density statistics. The MO Dept. of
Conservation also lists inhabited regions by squirrels as regions with
a lot of cover. For this estimation, we?ll define this as forested
land.
http://mdc.mo.gov/landown/wild/squirrel/
NationalAtlas.gov lists the area forested in the United States as 747
million acres.
http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/biology/a_forest.html
Now, we?ve going to have to do a bit of math to determine an
estimation of the squirrel population in the United States. We?ll
assume a squirrel population density of 1.5 squirrels per acre based
on the ?high? population given to us by the MO Dept. of Conservation.
1.5 squirrels/acre * 747 million acres of inhabited land = 1.12 billion squirrels
So, here are my final numbers for comparison:
Human population: 298.44 million
Squirrel population: 1.12 billion
It is clear that based on this estimation that the squirrel population
outnumbers the human population by over three times. These numbers
are far from exact, but it is about as exact data as is able to be
attained due to the fact that it isn?t possible to count every
squirrel in the country and very limited population density or
population studies are available. I think it?s safe to say that based
on the data that is available, squirrels significantly outnumber
humans in the United States.
Search Strategy:
United States population
squirrel population density site:.gov. OR .edu
percent forest cover united states |
