North Dakota, also known as the "Peace Garden State", the Rough rider
state, and the 701, is the 19th-largest state by area at 70,698 square miles (mi²), the fourth-smallest by population at 811,044 residents in 2023. North Dakota experienced the fourth-highest population growth by percentage in the United States from 2010 to 2023, increasing its population by 20.59%.
The lone city in North Dakota with a population larger than 100,000 is Fargo (pop. 132,122), where more than 16% of the state's population resides. Bismarck (pop. 77,327), the second largest, city is also the state capital.
North Dakota produces more oil than any state other than Texas and boasts one of the country's lowest unemployment rates, mainly because of the oil industry. Demographically, North Dakota has the sixth-largest percentage of Native American residents of any state.
North Dakota joined the Union in November 1889, one of four states admitted in the first part of that month, the busiest period of new-statehood creation in U.S. history. North Dakota has participated in 33 presidential elections, voting Republican in 27, including all 14 since 1968. Of the five times it went "blue," only 1916 (Woodrow Wilson's second-term victory) was not a nationwide landslide for the Democratic candidate. (North Dakota's first election as a state was won by a 3rd party candidate). North Dakota is a very safe state for the Republicans in presidential elections. In 2020, Donald Trump defeated Joe Biden by a 65% to 32% margin. The state's population of about 673,000 is little changed from what it was in 1920. As a result, North Dakota is one of six states with a minimum of three electoral votes.
According to the most recent ACS, the racial composition of North Dakota was:
White: 84.9%
Native American: 5.06%
Two or more races: 3.85%
Black or African American: 3.15%
Asian: 1.59%
Other race: 1.29%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 0.15%
Muslims are less than 1000.
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