Judging by the number of downvotes I'm receiving in this chain, people have very strong opinions (and interesting reference points) on what 'right next to each

Judging by the number of downvotes I'm receiving in this chain, people have very strong opinions (and interesting reference points) on what 'right next to each other' means. However, since karma is free, I'll point out that the population of Australia is less than that of many well-separated regions of the U.S., which is unsurprising given that its total population is 1/13th of the U.S.'s.