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Density of population

Density of population data for each country of the world is given in this section and it will be analyse with some statistics and maps. The cities and districts with the highest density of population will be also given.

Table of contents

• The global density of population
• Density of population by continent in 2016
• Density of population for each country in 2020
• Global density of population in 2015
• Countries with the highest density of population
• Cities with the highest density of population
• Physiological density or real population density
• Population data for each country
• Other interesting link to explore

The global density of population

The world population is not equally distributed and it is in some extent depending on the geography of the earth with influencing factors like deserts. More information about the world population data can be found on our page about population.

The Earth has a land area of 148,647,000 km² and around 7.7 billion people. From this data, we can estimate a world density of population of 51.8 inhabitants / km².

Density of population by continent in 2016

Asia is the continent with the highest density of population and it is also the one with the most inhabitants. Then we have Europe with a value close to the one of Asia. Africa comes after with a density of 36.7 inhabitants / km², which is below the world average. North America and South America come then with both very close value to each other. Finally, we have Oceania with a very low value.

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Density of population for each country in 2020

The map shows the density of population for each country in the world. The density of population goes from yellow (low density) to dark red (high density).

3 areas of high density of population can be seen on the map, on Europe and 2 in Asia (India – Pakistan – Bangladesh – Sri Lanka and Japan – South-Korea -Taiwan – Philippines – Vietnam). This map focuses on the countries. In a country, there are also area of very high density of population, like in the US with the East and West coast or in China with the coastal area. The next chapter will describe the density of population for each region to show this variation in the countries.

Low density of population values is present in the northern part (Canada, Greenland, Russia, …), Australia and some parts of Africa. These regions are mainly dominated by deserts or extreme cold regions. So it’s normal to have a little density of population.

Global density of population in 2015

On this map, the local repartition of the density of population can be seen worldwide. Like explain before we can see high density of population in some part of the USA and China. The density of population of a country can be misleading.

By combining the density of the population with the aerial map, we can directly see the impact of desert and polar regions on the distribution of the population.

Source: European commission – Global Human Settlement

• Dataset:Schiavina, Marcello; Freire, Sergio; MacManus, Kytt (2019): GHS population grid multitemporal (1975, 1990, 2000, 2015) R2019A. European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) DOI: 10.2905/42E8BE89-54FF-464E-BE7B-BF9E64DA5218 PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/0c6b9751-a71f-4062-830b-43c9f432370f
• Concept & Methodology:Freire, Sergio; MacManus, Kytt; Pesaresi, Martino; Doxsey-Whitfield, Erin; Mills, Jane (2016): Development of new open and free multi-temporal global population grids at 250 m resolution. Geospatial Data in a Changing World; Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe (AGILE). AGILE 2016.

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Countries with the highest density of population

The country with the highest density of population is Monaco with 18,589 inhabitants / km². Then we have Singapore (7,148 inhabitants / km²) and The Vatican (1,877 inhabitants / km²). These 3 first countries are city-state. If we exclude Countries with less than 1000 km², the country with the highest density of population is Bangladesh with 1,265 inhabitants / km².

Cities with the highest density of population

The 3 cities with the highest density of population are:

1. Manila (Philippines) with 43,079 inhabitants / km²
2. Bombay (India) with 28,508 inhabitants / km²
3. Dacca (Bangladesh) with 28,410 inhabitants / km²

Some districts of cities in the world have very high density of population. The 3 districts with the biggest density of population are:

1. Lalbagh Thana (Dacca – Bangladesh) with 168,151 inhabitants / km²
2. Ayal Nasi (Dubai – United Arab Emirates) with 150,647 inhabitants / km²
3. Chowk Bazaar (Dacca – Bangladesh) with 130,122 inhabitants / km²

Physiological density or real population density

The physiological density or real population density is the number of people per unit area of arable land. By taking this into account the density of population of some countries becomes very high. Values above 500 inhabitants / km² and even 1,000 inhabitants / km² can be found in countries like Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Taipei and Egypt.

Egypt is a particular illustration of this. Indeed the majority of this country is desert and only the area around the Nile are arable land where the 100 million people are living. Due to this, the physiological density of Egypt is 3,300 inhabitants / km² which is one of the highest in the world, but if we take the whole country area we have only 100 inhabitants / km².

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Population data for each country

The population data for each country is shown in the list below. The land area and the density of population of each country are also indicated. The proportion of the population of each country against the world population is also indicated in %. For more information about the world population, we invite you to explore the page population.

Other interesting link to explore

• World population: this section contain first of all World maps and data visualization about the population in the world. Furthermore, a map will show the percentage of the world population for each country.