I live on the coast, but the notion that no one lives in the Midwest is absurd and derisive.

About two thirds of the US population live in coastal states, but that includes gulf coast states which are pretty central on the east west axis. That still leaves a third of the population, with the Chicago metro area being one of the largest and densest catch basins.

The Great Lakes megalopolis has more people in it than the Boston-to-DC Northeast megalopolis.

Plenty of people live all over the eastern half of the US. It's only the western half that is mostly empty except for the coast.

Here's the population by time zone, in millions:

    Eastern:  150.2 (47.1%)
    Central:   92.3 (29.0%)
    Mountain:  21.3 (6.7%)
    Pacific:   53.0 (16.6%)

https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-the-US-population-l...

That's, quite possibly, one of the silliest things I've ever heard. At least 50% of the U.S. population doesn't live near the coasts.

Surprisingly, when I went to debunk the original ridiculous statement, I found that if you count the gulf coast, it’s only a third of the US population that doesn’t live in an ocean-adjacent state.

“No one” is still the silliest thing I’ve heard for a while, though!