Notes on World Population Distribution

In the past, the world was not as densely populated as it is not today, nor did mankind occupy the entire land area of the earth.During the food-gathering stage, the level of density was very low, ranging from 3.0 per 100 square miles to 12.5 per 100 square miles.

With the Agricultural Revolution some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago came an accelerated growth and greater concentration of population in well defined areas.

For instance, it has been estimated that, about 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, population density was 27 per square mile (about 10 per square kilometer) among the early village farming people, who lived in hill lands north of Mesopotamia.

Though the world population continued to be predominantly rural, the rise of cities some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago may be considered to be the second major revolution in human culture, leading to a [concentration of people in restricted areas.

Urban development took place mainly in the lands bordering the Tigris-Euphrates and the Nile rivers, in the Indus Valley of India and Hwang Delta of Northern China.

About the beginning of the Christian Era, the greatest concentration of population was in the Indian subcontinent, with a second smaller centre located in China. The third concentration was in the Roman Empire of Augustus.

By about 1650, 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the earth’s population was concentrated in Eastern and Southern Asia. Trewartha points out: “The early concentration of the earth’s population in Eastern and Southern Asia, and the enduring character of this concentration through two millenniums of time, is one of the primary features of the earth’s population geography.”

In the seventeenth century, the areas of population concentration were to be found in Northern and Eastern China, Southern Japan, the Indian subcontinent, the Mediterranean, and Western and Central Europe.

Smaller units of relatively high density were found in the Nile Valley, Mediterranean Asia and Mesopotamia. A few even smaller centres existed in Latin America, mainly in Mexico, Central America and the Peruvian-Bolivian Andes.

Together with the surface area and density of population, a picture of the distribution of world population in the major regions of the world in 1984. It is evident that more than half the population of the world lives in Asia (58.82 percent), though Asia has only 20.24 per cent of the earth’s such area.

The second largest share of the world’s population goes North and South America with 13.68 per cent of the w population living on 31.19 per cent of the earth’s surface a Europe’s population is 9.41 per cent of the world’s population, 3.62 per cent of the earth’s surface area.

While Africa contribute 12.13 per cent with 22.25 per cent of the earth’s surface area, erstwhile USSR, considered separately, has 16.44 per cent of earth’s surface area and 5.22 per cent of the world’s population.”

The smallest share of the world population is contributed Oceania, only 0.50 per cent, while it has a higher percentage of earth’s surface area (6.26 per cent) than that of Europe (3.62 cent).

USSR

This is a broad, region-wise picture of population district in the world. It is necessary, however, to consider the regions, too, in order to get a better idea of how the population distributed in the broader regions and how population density in the various sub-regions.

In population density ranges between nine per square kilometer Middle Africa to 27 for Western and 24 for Eastern Africa America, the Caribbean in Latin America has the highest population density (130).

In all the sub-regions of Asia, Japan has the high population density, that is, 320 per square kilometer, with South Asia having a population density of 153. The population density in Asia is found in Western Asia (24). Population density of East Asia after excluding China and Japan is 38 which are quite low compared to Asian standards.

Among the sub-regions of Europe, Northern Europe has the population density (50), while it is quite high in Western Europe (155), Eastern Europe (113) and Southern Europe (106). In Australia and New Zealand and Melanesia the population density is two per square kilometer.

One fact which clearly emerges from Table 11.2 is that Japan has the highest population density in the world (320), the densely populated areas being Western Europe (155), Midi Southern Asia (153,) the Caribbean (130), Eastern Europe (11 and Southern Europe (108).

Another fact worth noting is that the population density for any sub-region of the African continent not exceeds 27 per square kilometer, indicating that the entitled continent is sparsely populated. A greater part of the surface are of Oceania is even less sparsely inhabited.