Population Density - Human Population Density

Human Population Density

For humans, population density is the number of people per unit of area usually per square kilometer or mile (which may include or exclude cultivated or potentially productive area). Commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world.

The world's population is 7 billion, and Earth's total area (including land and water) is 510 million square kilometers (197 million square miles). Therefore the worldwide human population density is 6.8 billion ÷ 510 million = 13.3 per km2 (34.5 per sq. mile). If only the Earth's land area of 150 million km2 (58 million sq. miles) is taken into account, then human population density increases to 45.3 per km2 (117.2 per sq. mile). This calculation includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to 50 people per km2 (129.28 per sq. mile). Considering that over half of the Earth's land mass consists of areas inhospitable to human inhabitation, such as deserts and high mountains, and that population tends to cluster around seaports and fresh water sources, this number by itself does not give any meaningful measurement of human population density.

Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, or dependencies. These territories share a relatively small area and a high urbanization level, with an economically specialized city population drawing also on rural resources outside the area, illustrating the difference between high population density and overpopulation.

Cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though the extent to which this is the case depends on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in southern and eastern Asia, though Cairo and Lagos in Africa also fall into this category.

City population is, however, heavily dependent on the definition of "urban area" used: densities are often higher for the central municipality itself, than when more recently developed and administratively separate suburban communities are included, as in the concepts of agglomeration or metropolitan area, the latter including sometimes neighboring cities. For instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and not the surrounding suburbs as well.

As a comparison, based on a world population of seven billion, the world's inhabitants would, as a loose crowd taking up ten square feet (one square metre) per person (Jacobs Method), would occupy a space roughly the size of Fiji's land area.