After crunching the numbers it is clear why. Pennsylvania leads the country with an average of over 20 hunters per square mile (PSM)! For comparison, other popular whitetail destinations like Michigan, Iowa and Texas only have 6.7, 4.5 and 4.4 hunters PSM, respectively. In fact, Pennsylvania has a higher hunter density than those three states combined! I based this analysis on statistics from the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.
Let’s take a regional look at this variable. The West has the lightest hunter densities – by far – by averaging only 1.2 hunters PSM. It’s no wonder you can hunt for days in the West and never see another hunter. In fact, Washington has the high density in this region at 3.1 hunters PSM and only two states (Nebraska and North Dakota) east of the Rocky Mountains have lower numbers.
As a group, the Midwest averages the next lowest density at 6.1 hunters PSM. Densities range from 1.2 in North Dakota to 13.7 hunters PSM in Wisconsin. Kansas and Iowa are well known “record-book” destinations and both average fewer than 5 hunters PSM. There are many ways to move bucks into older age classes, and one that works well for some states is having light hunter densities.
Nearly identical to the Midwest, the Southeast averages 6.2 hunters PSM, and densities range from 3.5 in Oklahoma to 10.2 in Mississippi and 10.4 hunters PSM in Alabama. Florida, Oklahoma and Texas all average less than 5 hunters PSM. Texas leads the nation in number of hunters but it is also the largest state in the whitetail’s range, so hunter density is light.
Notably, the Northeast averages nearly twice as many hunters PSM as the Midwest and Southeast, and about 10 times as many as the West. Not a single northeastern state averages fewer than 5 hunters PSM, and Pennsylvania averages more than 20 hunters PSM. In fact, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia all average more than 10 hunters PSM! It’s no wonder crowding is such a big issue in the Northeast. Granted, the Northeast’s forests and mountainous terrain can handle more hunters than flat, open country, but hunter density is a major factor to consider when implementing deer management programs.