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Where in the world people live
Tuesday, 26th February
This stunning map of population density around the world made the rounds of demographers on twitter this month. As far as I can tell, it originated from the National Geographic. They are doing a series of stories about the world’s seven billion people. If you have an iPad, you might consider getting their gorgeous app of the series.
The first thing I did when I looked at the map was to find Geraldton. You have to blow up the map quite a ways to see us, but we are there. Or maybe it is dust on my screen.
Second I looked at Australia as a whole. Even our five major cities make for very small spots. Canada has a similar distribution with the population clustered along the border with United States. Canada has more than 10 million more people than Australia. As Australia grows, currently at the rate of 1.6% per year, the experiences of the rest of the world will help us manage the increased population.
Looking at the map at a whole it is impossible to miss the very high population densities in Java, South Asia and China. India, China and Indonesia are three of the four most populous countries in the world. Shanghai now has a population equal to the size of Australia. This is why we are in the Asian Century. The government policies and social, cultural and economic activities of their citizens will lead the world.
What thoughts do you have when you look at this map?
Categories: Blog Population Tags: Ann Larson, Australian population trends, demographic analysis, population density, World population
2 Responses to Where in the world people live
Pretty easy to see where those masses will go when they are starving! Northern Australia must be obvious to anyone.
Stan, Thanks for your comment. It is difficult to imagine a near or medium term future in which people come to northern Australia for the food. The rapidly growing economies of India and China are already the largest producers of wheat and rice and they have experienced impressive gains in agricultural productivity. These heavily populated countries have the motivation and, now, the economic and global political clout to feed their people. For more information, read the International Food Policy Research Institute’s report ‘The role of emerging countries in global food security available here.