USA Hockey has been keeping track of player registration on a state-by-state basis since the 1998-99 season, enabling us to get a snapshot of where the game is growing — and shrinking — in the United States. So, on this Hockey Day in America, we present those statistics.

What they show is a country where hockey on a participatory level is growing by big leaps in those Sun Belt states that have new or newly popular N.H.L. teams — places like the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Georgia (despite the Atlanta Thrashers’ huge problems drawing fans), Tennessee and Florida. At the same time, the game is stagnant or even shrinking in most of its traditional strongholds, like Michigan, Massachusetts and New York State.

The one exception is Minnesota, where the state federation’s HEP Program, with its “Fair Play point,” has sparked a big rise in already enormous amateur hockey participation levels.

Below, USA Hockey’s state-by-state figures on player participation for all registered boys, girls and adults, ranked by rate of per capita growth between 1998-99 and 2009-10. (These figures tell half the story of hockey in America — the other half will be examined in figures to be presented in a second post later today):

