Friday, January 6, 2012

Population Density

The average settlement of the people living within one square kilometer is known as population density. The density is also defined as number per unit area. Population density (in agriculture standing stock and standing crop) is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key geographic term. For us human beings, 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). This can be also calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or for the whole world. Our world population is 7 billion and our earth total area is 510 million square kilometers. Therefore the worldwide human population density is 6.8 billion ÷ 510 million = 13.3 per kilometer per square. This calculation includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to 50 people per kilometer per square. Considering the  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.

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