Population density
The population density, also called population density, is the average number of inhabitants per area for a particular area ( state, region, or the like ), usually expressed in inhabitants per km ². They are calculated by dividing the number of inhabitants of the area by the area of the region. The counterpart in the animal world is the population density.
A somewhat modified concept of population density is the population density. It describes the number of inhabitants per square kilometer settlement and traffic area.
Sometimes the reciprocal value, the Area formality digit given. This then means the " average area per inhabitant ."
Population densities in geographical units
Countries
The country with the
- Highest population density ( city-state ): 17,763 inhabitants Monaco / km ²
- Highest population density ( surface state ): Malta 1,321 inhabitants / km ²
- Lowest population density ( region ): Nunavut 0.01 inhabitants / km ²
- Lowest population density ( surface state ): Mongolia 1.77 inhabitants / km ²
By comparison, Germany 226 inhabitants / km ², Austria 100.2 inhabitants / km ², Switzerland 193 inhabitants / km ², Belgium 362 inhabitants / km ². The most sparsely populated continent is Antarctica with 0.0001-0.0003 inhabitants / km ².
Cities
Within the area of a country's population density is highly variable. The highest population densities are found in cities, and often one can find again many times higher population densities in individual districts. For example, Macau has (now the People's Republic of China ) is already a very high density of 19,853 inhabitants / km ². However, the district Freguesia de Santo Antonio within Macau has a much higher: here come almost 100,000 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Probably the highest ever population density in the world pointed to the Kowloon Walled City, a district in Hong Kong, which was demolished in 1993. Here lived 33,000 inhabitants on 0.026 km ² only what / corresponds to a world-record population density of 1,300,000 inhabitants km ².
In Europe, Paris has 21 289 inhabitants with / km ² a very high population density; the 11th arrondissement ( Arrondissement ) has the highest density of Paris with 41 744 inhabitants / km ². The most densely populated area of Europe is located in the Spanish city of L' Hospitalet de Llobregat, where in Florida district about 77,000 people live on one square kilometer.
The most densely populated city in North America Guttenberg in the U.S. state of New Jersey with 22 352 inhabitants / km ². The urban area along the Hudson River from Manhattan represents only a narrow shoreline, on the approximately 11,000 inhabitants.
In general, the population density data of cities and towns are not very meaningful in terms of the actual population density, ie, how close people live together. Even outside of urban areas, there are about cities, a relatively small district ( with little agricultural land ) have historical reasons, and consequently have a higher statistical population density - and others with large estates and woods, with a correspondingly lower population density. The population density is statistically interesting only at the level of counties.
Germany
The statistically most densely populated major city in Germany is Munich with 4440 inhabitants per km ² before Berlin with 3785 inhabitants per km ² and Herne, in the Ruhr area ( 3006 inhabitants / km ²). Hamburg is the second largest German city, however, is home to only 2296 inhabitants / km ².
The statistical population density, however, says only a very limited impact about the actual building density and population density of individual neighborhoods. The city boundaries are often created quite arbitrary historical developments out. Munich owes its leading position in this case the fact that the city limits are relatively narrow selected. Also the apartment occupancy, ie the number of persons per dwelling unit has an influence on the population density. So cities or neighborhoods with many single-person households tend to have a lower population density.
Hamburg has the port and larger rural areas large areas where very few people live, which reduces the average population density.
Densely built-up residential areas without major uninhabited areas with narrow borders are easy to reach over 10,000 inhabitants per km ². The Munich district of Schwabing-West has a population density of 14,217, the Berlin district Friedenau 16,391, the Friedrichstadt district in Dusseldorf comes out to about 17,200 and the Hamburg district Eimsbuettel comes to 18.190 inhabitants / km ². Probably by far the most densely populated district in Germany is the Westend in Wiesbaden, in the one square kilometer around 26,000 inhabitants.
The most densely populated district of Germany is 1,172 inhabitants / km ², the district of Mettmann, east of Dusseldorf. Followed by Hesse Main-Taunus -Kreis, between Wiesbaden and Frankfurt am Main, with 1017 inhabitants / km ². In third place followed by the Hessian also Offenbach district with 944 inhabitants / km ². The least densely populated districts of Germany are with 37 inhabitants / km ², the Prignitz in the northwest of Brandenburg, with 38 inhabitants / km ², the Altmark Salzwedel in northwestern Saxony- Anhalt and with 40 inhabitants / km ², the district Uckermark in the northeast of Brandenburg.
The most sparsely populated community in Germany is Wiedenborstel in Schleswig- Holstein, come in five inhabitants to 4.52 km ². The population density is therefore 1.11 inhabitants / km ². In fact, however, 11 people living in the community. The smaller population is due to a statistical error.
The most densely populated area of the country in Germany, North Rhine -Westphalia (515 inhabitants / km ²) in front of the Saarland ( 388 inhabitants / km ²). The least populated is Mecklenburg -Western Pomerania ( 69 inhabitants / km ²).
Austria
The five major Austrian cities ( over 100,000 inhabitants) according to the population density ( people / km ²) ranked as follows, while the secondary residences were involved:
The most densely populated district of Vienna is Margaret, where living on 2.03 square kilometers 53 101 people - that's 26 158 per km ². In second place is the Josefstadt, which also reached with 22,181 inhabitants per square kilometer, a value greater than 20,000.
Switzerland
The six major Swiss cities by population density ranked as follows:
The neighborhood Matthew in Basel with 27,510 inhabitants per square kilometer, the highest population density of the city.
The city district in Zurich with the greatest population density is Aussersihl (District 4) with 9519 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Islands
The only about 1.2 acre Colombian island of Santa Cruz del Islote has constructed a population density of about 100 000 inhabitants per square kilometer. Among the major islands in the world, the Indonesian Java has over 1,000 inhabitants per km ² the highest population density.
Meaningfulness
The significance of the value of the population density is often considered to be low, since it represents an average number. It gives no indication of the difference in population due to geographical features, such as uninhabitable areas. For countries with a high proportion of deserts or mountains, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia or China, the number is therefore not very enlightening. Specifically in this case would be the population density at which one refers only to the theoretically inhabitable area.
Methodological Note: related to the district area population density of a city or town is not very meaningful, as they are very dependent on how large the proportion of non -populated areas is: Large forest and arable land in the district reduce the population density, while residents can of the neighborhoods quite crowded living.
An extreme example is about the Swedish municipality of Kiruna. Here live 23,129 inhabitants to 19,371 km ². This corresponds to 1.2 inhabitants per km ². However, living in the same center of the municipality 18,154 inhabitants at only 15.92 km ² ( 1,140 inhabitants per km ²) area. 78.5 % of the inhabitants are thus concentrated on only 0.08 % of the area.