Map of Idaho

History

Humans may have been present in the Idaho area as long as 14,500 years ago. Excavations at Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls in 1959 revealed evidence of human activity, including arrowheads, that rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America. American Indian peoples predominant in the area included the Nez Percé in the north and the Northern and Western Shoshone in the south.

A Late Upper Paleolithic site was identified at Cooper's Ferry in western Idaho near the town of Cottonwood by archaeologists in 2019. Based on evidence found at the site, first people lived in this area 15,300 to 16,600 years ago, predating the Beringia land bridge by about a thousand years.

Geography

Idaho shares a border with six U.S. states and one Canadian province. The states of Washington and Oregon are to the west, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Montana and Wyoming to the east. Idaho also shares a short border with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north.

The landscape is rugged, with some of the largest unspoiled natural areas in the United States. For example, at 2.3 million acres (930,000 ha), the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness is the largest contiguous area of protected wilderness in the continental United States. Idaho is a Rocky Mountain state with abundant natural resources and scenic areas. The state has snow-capped mountain ranges, rapids, vast lakes and steep canyons.

Economy

In 2025, the gross state product (state GDP) for Idaho was $135.5 billion and the state's per capita personal income was $64,846. Idaho had the 39th highest GDP per capita in the United States of America in 2025.

In 2025, small businesses made up 99.2% and employed 56.0% of the state's work force. As of May 2025, the state's unemployment rate was 3.6%. Total employment in Idaho in 2024 was 965,824.

Idaho is the top potato producing state in the United States and almost one-third of the nation's potatoes are grown in the Snake River Plain, a belt of low-lying land that extends across southern Idaho.

Important industries in Idaho are food processing, lumber and wood products, machinery, chemical products, paper products, electronics manufacturing, silver and other mining, and tourism.

Demographics

The United States Census Bureau determined Idaho's population was 1,900,923 on July 1, 2021, a 21% increase since the 2010 US census.

Idaho had an estimated population of 1,754,208 in 2018, an increase of 37,265 from the prior year and an increase of 186,626 (11.91%) since 2010. This included a natural increase since the last census of 58,884 (111,131 births minus 52,247 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 75,795 people into the state. There are large numbers of Americans of English and German ancestry in Idaho.