Perspective: Alabamians own more guns than the entire nation of Spain

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July 27, 2015

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — It’s no secret that the Yellowhammer State is well armed. The 2nd Amendment is taken very seriously here, so it comes at no surprise that there are entire nations that have fewer firearms than Alabama. How does Alabama stack up internationally in terms of gun ownership?

Because there is no definitive listing of how many people in each state own firearms, Real Estate website Movoto began its comparison with a report done by a research group in Switzerland, “Small Arms Survey 2007: Guns and the City,” which estimated the number of guns owned in each country, then took the estimate of 88.8 guns per 100 people for the U.S.—which, seven years later, Movoto admits, is likely higher—and used it to calculate each state’s estimated gun ownership, based on state populations from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 survey.

With a population of 4,779,736 according to the most recent Census and approximately 4,244,406 guns owned, Alabama has about the same number of firearms as the entire country of Spain.

Here’s how the rest of the nation stacks up:

All 50 States Renamed For Countries With Similar Gun Ownership By Movoto Real Estate

Other notable states with their country comparisons:
– California’s total of 33.08 million guns is closest to China’s 40 million
– Texas’ total of 22.33 million guns is closest to Germany’s 25 million
– New York’s total of 17.2 million guns is closest to Pakistan’s 18 million