How come we only see presidents hailing from a handful of states?

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Arkansas has less than 1% of the population, and yet had a recent 2 term President.

And? He's the only president ever from Arkansas. Same deal if Bernie had been elected.

Bernie's from NY.

[Pessimistic Antineutrino]

If you extend this to VPs as well a few oddities start to pop up.

For instance, despite being only a medium sized state Indiana has contributed the second-largest number of vice presidents with 6, only after New York's 11. Most of these (4/6) were from a relatively short period (1869-1921), the other two being Quayle and Pence.
And while Ohio has produced the second largest number of presidents, there's never been a VP from that state.

[RINO Tom]

Arkansas has less than 1% of the population, and yet had a recent 2 term President.

And? He's the only president ever from Arkansas. Same deal if Bernie had been elected.

Bernie's from NY.

I think most people use the state they "ran from" rather than their birth state.  The vast majority of people would write "Reagan (R-CA)" before "Reagan (R-IL).