World population cartogram for 2015

[Roma_Victrix]

You can zoom in here: https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fim.../HhqlkMK.0.png

This is an interesting display of where the world's greatest population centers are located. It also demonstrates how countries that otherwise look big on a regular map really aren't in terms of population. Some countries are so small (less than 250,000 people, each square being 500,000) they don't even feature on the map! In that regard, the most striking absence is Greenland, which territorial-wise is huge but doesn't even have 100,000 people. Naturally Germany is the big boss of Europe if you discount Russia. I was unaware that Japan has over two times as many people as South Korea. I was also unaware that Pakistan is significantly larger than Iran. Everyone is hilariously dwarfed by China and India, obviously, but get a load of Nigeria! It's catching up to Brazil. One can barely notice Canada sitting on top of the USA. Australia isn't much of a continent in this map, is it?

In either case, feel free to comment about your own country or others. Why do you think your country is able to maintain such a huge population? Or rather, why do you think it is presently growing at a rapid rate, if at all?

[Påsan]

Why do you think your country is able to maintain such a huge population?

Huge indeed.


Anyway, very interesting map though. +repz for that.

[AqD]

I'm surprised to find out there are so few people in the Middle East.... Thought Persia was huge and populated

[Roma_Victrix]

Well, Iran has 78 million people, that's more than most individual European countries. Turkey and Egypt also both have above 80 million. That's not exactly tiny, especially since Germany is roughly the same size as those two. You're right, though, nearly every other state in the Middle East.

[lolIsuck]

Well yeah, fertile Europe can sustain a lot more people than the Middle East. The Netherlands being a prime example at that.

I'm surprised to find out there are so few people in the Middle East.... Thought Persia was huge and populated

Large areas of inarable land, a history of water scarcity and a plethora of conflicts and you're surprised there's not more people there?

[Vítor Gaspar]

I assume Portugal and Spain have the world average population density, am I right? Because we look absolutely normal in the map. Portugal is a little more densely populated than Spain but not by much.

P.S - Bangladesh is just crazy. So is São Paulo, Greater São Paulo alone occupies 1/5 of Brazil in that map.

[Aru]

Java is ridiculous. I can't imagine so many people on so small island.

[Condottiere 40K]

61374
Finding them all gainful employment will be fun.

[AqD]

That's why we need sweatshops.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Wow India and China what the hell.
Mongolia though, something like half of the world's Mongol population lives in China.

[Condottiere 40K]

32443
Genetically speaking, probably a lot more.

[Killerbee]

Indonesia a quarter billion ??

Pretty sick

[Roma_Victrix]

Indonesia a quarter billion ??

Pretty sick

That makes it roughly the size of the entire Arab world, and represents about a fifth of all Muslims. Keeping that in mind, when people generalize about Muslims, they often don't consider the Southeast Asian ones in that equation, who (when combining Malaysia and Indonesia) are more numerous than all the Arabs in every country combined. Then there's the South Asian Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India, who again are far more numerous (even more so than Malaysia and Indonesia when combined). Although the Central Asian Muslims like the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs aren't more numerous than either of these groups, they've nevertheless been exceedingly secularized thanks to the agnostic legacy of the Soviet Union. Hence they are a horse of a different color when compared to the hardcore traditionalist Arabs.