Between 1960 and the year 2015, coastal population is expected to increase by 71 million people, more than double the current population of California. The Crowding of Our Shorelines Coastal areas are becoming more crowded every year in the United States. This population density increased to 273 persons per square mile by 1994, and is expected to reach 327 by 2015.
Population densities are highest along the East Coast, especially in the Northeast.
These counties are classified as coastal because they are located entirely or partially within the nation's coastal watersheds. The population on the coast outnumbers the population of the nation's vast noncoastal interior by over 16 million people. The noncoastal population, numbering about 122 million, is distributed across the majority of the national land area . The noncoastal population today is similar in density to the coastal population of the early 1980s. Appendix A lists population data by coastal county between 1960 and 1994.