What Does It Mean to be a "Centrist" Today in the U.S.?

Well, I guess it means you live just southwest of St. Louis, Missouri.

George Will had a recent column talking about the effect of U.S. demographics on national politics, and this line intrigued me:

"...the center of the nation's population, now southwest of St. Louis, is moving south and west at a rate of two feet an hour..."

I just had to find that map, which took all of two seconds with Google (I'm old enough to still find this new Internet thingie flat-out amazing).

It shows how the "mean center" of the population has moved from 1790 to 2000 (I thought only right-wingers were mean?). Click on the image for a bigger view, or check out the even-larger Census Bureau .pdf which I screen-captured.

Note the distinct turn South right after WW II, at the dawn of the air conditioning age. The current trajectory appears headed for El Paso.

And look, you can find the population center of your very own state right here.