| The average population density of the
world is 47 persons per square mile. Continental densities range from no
permanent inhabitants in Antarctica to 211 per square mile in Europe. In the
western hemisphere, population densities range from about 4 per square mile in
Canada to 675 per square mile in Puerto Rico. In Europe the range is from 4 per
square mile in Iceland to 831 per square mile in the Netherlands. within
countries there are wide variations of population densities. For example, in
Egypt, the average is 55 persons per square mile, but 1,300 persons inhabit each
square mile in settled portions where the land is arable. High population densities generally occur in regions of developed industrialization, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Great Britain, or where lands are intensively used for agriculture, as in Puerto Rico and Java. Low average population densities are characteristic of most underdeveloped countries. Low density of population is generally associated with a relatively low percentage of cultivated land. This generally results from poor-quality lands. It may also be due to natural obstacles to cultivation, such as deserts, mountains or malaria-infested jungles, to land uses other than cultivation, as pasture and forested land, to primitive methods that limit cultivation, to social obstacles, and to land ownership systems which keep land out of production. More economically advanced countries of low population density have, as a rule, large proportions of their populations living in urban areas. Their rural population densities are usually very low. Poorer developed countries of correspondingly low general population density, on the other hand, often have a concentration of rural population living on arable land, which is as great as the rural concentration found in the most densely populated industrial countries. |