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One thing that is a little bit off in the analysis is the statement "China, India and Africa are (and have been for a long time) the most populous regions in t
by Frogolocalypse 10y ago
One thing that is a little bit off in the analysis is the statement
"China, India and Africa are (and have been for a long time) the most populous regions in the world"
Actually, according to that data, Africa only overtook Europe in population between 1980 and 1990. I remember when that happened, because I'd always assumed Africa had far more people. They will, but it hasn't been for 'a long time'. It was quite recent really.
- dagaci 10y agoUntil extremely recently Africa has (with the exception of the Nile delta) been very under-populated. Even today it's regions do not rank amongst the most populated regions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density (with the exception of the Nile delta) Historically Africa had very little population growth compared to the tiny population that survived the "out-of-africa" exit. I would speculate: part of the reasoning for this would be the lack of domesticable livestock, and why that would occur in the place where humans had evolved from simple inefficient sapiens.
- WildUtah 10y agoWith the Sahara and Kalahari, Africa will be desperately overpopulated long before it matches Europe or China for total density. There's simply a vast and growing uninhabitable fraction of land in Africa. Increasing population pressure is actually already causing desertification that make it worse.
- hx87 10y agoScarcity of reliably arable land combined with extreme disease burdens probably have something to do with that.
- Frogolocalypse 10y agoIt's actually much more simple. It's just urbanization vs rural. As urbanization increases, population density can increase. Until very recently Africa was mostly rural.