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I beg to differ, India's population density is comparable to many Western European countries. They a problem of population distribution. Like many developing na

I beg to differ, India's population density is comparable to many Western European countries. They a problem of population distribution. Like many developing nations, populations cluster in large cities leading to pressures on resources.

mrcode007 7y ago
https://pudding.cool/2018/10/city_3d/ https://pudding.cool/2018/10/city_3d/
thaumasiotes 7y ago
> India's population density is comparable to many Western European countries. I went down worldpopulationreview.com's list; I'll post my list annotated with country size as a reply to this comment. Findings: India, the country, is #28. It has essentially equal population density to the Netherlands (#29, in Europe!), while being a modest 87 times larger. Belgium (#33) has only slightly less density, and India is merely 102 times bigger. The next European country down is England at #50. It's much closer to the size of India -- 8% as large -- and has two-thirds the density. Pakistan is #55; it's about four times the size of England with comparable density. #59 is Germany; it's less than half the size of Pakistan with comparable density. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, who you might have thought would have super-high density, are equal to Germany. (Monaco and Vatican City really do have super-high density.) The only other country-sized European countries in the top 70 are Switzerland and Italy, #68 and #69. They have half the density of India. Italy is a tenth of India's size. Switzerland is slightly larger than the Netherlands. Bangladesh, by the way, is #12, with more than double the density of India (in about 1/20 of the space). So I can't agree that India's population density is comparable to "many Western European countries". It's comparable to a couple of diminutive European countries. Equal density over 100 times the area is not what you would expect; it's something very unusual about India. In fact, we can just compare the regions directly. Europe has 743 million people in 10 million square kilometers of land for an average density of 74.3 people per square km. India (including Pakistan and Bangladesh) has 1740 million people in 4 million square km, for an average density of over 400 people per square km (roughly equal to the density of India the country, which makes sense), about 6 times the figure for Europe.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  Areas are taken from Wikipedia, with water area removed where Wikipedia lists water area. This list is the full top 30 "countries" plus whoever I thought was of interest down to #70. Many areas are rounded. 1. Macau 30 square km 2. Monaco 2.2 3. Singapore 720 4. Hong Kong 1,070 5. Gibraltar 6.7 6. Bahrain 778 7. Vatican City 0.44 8. Maldives 298 9. Malta 316 10. Sint Maarten 37 11. Bermuda 39 12. Bangladesh 138,000 13. Palestine 5,800 14. Saint-Martin 53 15. Mayotte 374 16. Barbados 439 17. Lebanon 10,300 18. Taiwan 36,000 19. Mauritius 2,000 20. Aruba 179 21. San Marino 61 22. South Korea 100,000 23. Nauru 21 24. Saint Barthelemy 25 25. Rwanda 25,000 26. Comoros 1,659 27. Tuvalu 26 28. India 2,970,000 29. Netherlands 34,000 30. Israel 21,000 33. Belgium 29,000 37. Japan 365,000 47. Vietnam 310,000 50. United Kingdom 239,000 55. Pakistan 860,000 59. Germany 357,000 68. Switzerland 40,000 69. Italy 294,000
chmod775 7y ago
Most european countries have highly cultivated land and are industrialized through and through. It might go faster nowadays, but it took them hundreds of years to get there. Turning the middle of nowhere into arable land doesn't happen over night in any case. This makes them able to efficiently provide for their population with the land they have available. India has some way to go in that respect. This is not accounting for differences in geography or resources - like water - that are directly limited unless you want to build infrastructure for artificial water purification too.
gingabriska 7y ago
Not all land is livable. And more land becomes livable if the population residing on them have more resources. Many places in Scandinavia go below -20c and people live there because they've means to heat up the spaces where they live. People are surviving in dessert where there is no natural water because they've built sea water planets.

mrcode007 7y ago

https://pudding.cool/2018/10/city_3d/ https://pudding.cool/2018/10/city_3d/

thaumasiotes 7y ago

> India's population density is comparable to many Western European countries. I went down worldpopulationreview.com's list; I'll post my list annotated with country size as a reply to this comment. Findings: India, the country, is #28. It has essentially equal population density to the Netherlands (#29, in Europe!), while being a modest 87 times larger. Belgium (#33) has only slightly less density, and India is merely 102 times bigger. The next European country down is England at #50. It's much closer to the size of India -- 8% as large -- and has two-thirds the density. Pakistan is #55; it's about four times the size of England with comparable density. #59 is Germany; it's less than half the size of Pakistan with comparable density. Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, who you might have thought would have super-high density, are equal to Germany. (Monaco and Vatican City really do have super-high density.) The only other country-sized European countries in the top 70 are Switzerland and Italy, #68 and #69. They have half the density of India. Italy is a tenth of India's size. Switzerland is slightly larger than the Netherlands. Bangladesh, by the way, is #12, with more than double the density of India (in about 1/20 of the space). So I can't agree that India's population density is comparable to "many Western European countries". It's comparable to a couple of diminutive European countries. Equal density over 100 times the area is not what you would expect; it's something very unusual about India. In fact, we can just compare the regions directly. Europe has 743 million people in 10 million square kilometers of land for an average density of 74.3 people per square km. India (including Pakistan and Bangladesh) has 1740 million people in 4 million square km, for an average density of over 400 people per square km (roughly equal to the density of India the country, which makes sense), about 6 times the figure for Europe.

thaumasiotes 7y ago
Areas are taken from Wikipedia, with water area removed where Wikipedia lists water area. This list is the full top 30 "countries" plus whoever I thought was of interest down to #70. Many areas are rounded. 1. Macau 30 square km 2. Monaco 2.2 3. Singapore 720 4. Hong Kong 1,070 5. Gibraltar 6.7 6. Bahrain 778 7. Vatican City 0.44 8. Maldives 298 9. Malta 316 10. Sint Maarten 37 11. Bermuda 39 12. Bangladesh 138,000 13. Palestine 5,800 14. Saint-Martin 53 15. Mayotte 374 16. Barbados 439 17. Lebanon 10,300 18. Taiwan 36,000 19. Mauritius 2,000 20. Aruba 179 21. San Marino 61 22. South Korea 100,000 23. Nauru 21 24. Saint Barthelemy 25 25. Rwanda 25,000 26. Comoros 1,659 27. Tuvalu 26 28. India 2,970,000 29. Netherlands 34,000 30. Israel 21,000 33. Belgium 29,000 37. Japan 365,000 47. Vietnam 310,000 50. United Kingdom 239,000 55. Pakistan 860,000 59. Germany 357,000 68. Switzerland 40,000 69. Italy 294,000

chmod775 7y ago

Most european countries have highly cultivated land and are industrialized through and through. It might go faster nowadays, but it took them hundreds of years to get there. Turning the middle of nowhere into arable land doesn't happen over night in any case. This makes them able to efficiently provide for their population with the land they have available. India has some way to go in that respect. This is not accounting for differences in geography or resources - like water - that are directly limited unless you want to build infrastructure for artificial water purification too.

gingabriska 7y ago

Not all land is livable. And more land becomes livable if the population residing on them have more resources. Many places in Scandinavia go below -20c and people live there because they've means to heat up the spaces where they live. People are surviving in dessert where there is no natural water because they've built sea water planets.