Construction continues at a new Meta data center in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, on March 31. (Joe Timmerman/Wisconsin Watch via Getty Images) The United States has more than 3,000 operational data centers, and that number is expected to grow substantially in the years ahead. More than 1,500 new data centers are in various stages of development nationwide, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from Data Center Map . About this research This Pew Research Center analysis looks at the location of planned and operational data centers in the United States. Why did we do this? Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. This research builds on our recent work about data centers and artificial intelligence. Learn more about Pew Research Center and our work on AI . How did we do this? Data on the number and location of U.S. data centers comes from Data Center Map , one of the oldest and most comprehensive industry databases.…