Skip Main Navigation
Official Nebraska Government Website
NITC Logo
Skip Side Navigation

How Does Nebraska Compare to Our Neighboring States in Population Density and Broadband Availability?

NITC logo

By Anne Byers, Nebraska Information Technology Commission

In my previous blog, I explored the relationship between population density and broadband availability in rural Nebraska counties. Now let’s take a broader look at the relationship between population density and broadband availability by focusing on Nebraska and our neighboring states.

With the exemption of Missouri--which has the highest population density, but ranks only above Wyoming in broadband availability—the states with the highest population densities also generally have greater broadband availability. Nebraska ranks 4th in broadband availability and 5th in population density. Only two of our neighboring states, South Dakota and Wyoming, have lower population densities than Nebraska. Wyoming has both the lowest population density and the lowest percent of population with broadband available. South Dakota’s population density is less than half of Nebraska’s, but the percent of population with broadband in South Dakota is just slightly lower than Nebraska’s. Of the four neighboring states with higher population densities than Nebraska, three (Iowa, Colorado, and Kansas) rank above Nebraska in the percent of population with broadband available than Nebraska. See the table below.

Population Density Table-Nebraska and Neighboring States