Apple sold 3 million new iPads the first weekend they went on sale in March, and has probably sold a few million more since then. So who are these people that pre-order or wait in line outside a store to be the first people to show off their shiny new device to their friends and family? Online advertising network Chitika has tracked where new iPads are being activated and has surfaced some interesting demographic data as to where these early third-generation iPad adopters live within in Apple’s largest market, the U.S.

The short answer is: mostly coastal states. In its Chitika Insights report, the company says it combined its own data showing new iPad activations — which currently account for 9 percent of all iPad traffic on its ad network — with U.S. Census bureau data. It found:

• The top five areas with the most newly activated iPad traffic are California, Hawaii, Nevada, Washington D.C. and Washington state.
• Those states (and district) — not coincidentally — are considered states of high median income levels, according to census data.
• By categorizing them in categories of either “coastal” or “inland,” Chitika learned that residents of coastal states are purchasing new iPads at a higher rate than their inland brethren.
• The median income in coastal states is 10 percent higher than that of inland states.

The conclusion, that people with more money are the ones rushing out the door to buy the latest tablet tech from Apple, isn’t that surprising. Obviously people who have extra discretionary spending money lying around can afford to buy gadgets that go for a minimum of $500.

Interestingly, this data pretty much mirrors what we learned about Apple’s customers in its second-largest market, China. Last week a research firm counted up the owners of all 21 million iPads and iPhones in China and found the highest concentration of those devices were in the country’s rich, coastal, heavily industrialized areas.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Forecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015
• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis