Population Center of the USA 2010, Missouri

The official population center of the USA, as determined by the 2010 national census, was declared to be at Plato, Missouri. The calculation has been made every decade since 1790, when it was in Maryland, and the population center has been moving west/southwest since then. The Mean Center of Population for the United States is determined mathematically as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the U.S. would balance perfectly if weights of identical size representing the 300+ million residents were placed according to each individual’s location, at the census tract level. Based on 2010 census data, the mathematical point was actually 2.7 miles east of Plato, in the woods on private property. The Chief Geodetic Surveyor from the National Geodetic Survey negotiated with local officials to put the monument in a public place near the middle of town, so that it would be more accessible. Even though it is a few miles away, it is still within the margin of error that is referred to as the “circle of uncertainty.”