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The U.S. actually has similar weighted population density to most of Europe. Simply dividing the total population by total area is a very poor metric, especial
by wahern 6y ago
The U.S. actually has similar weighted population density to most of Europe. Simply dividing the total population by total area is a very poor metric, especially for a country like the U.S. which just has an enormous amount of unpopulated land area.
An example of a weighted population density metric is the local density of the median household. Unfortunately, weighted metrics are rather new and last I looked I couldn't find population numbers using the same metric. The U.S. Census Bureau uses a metric based on census tract as the local area; EU uses square kilometer. For that and other reasons the published data isn't directly comparable (at least not easily). But to a first approximation the U.S. and Europe seem very similar--the U.S. is far more dense than commonly believed, and Europe less dense than commonly believed.
Of course, even with a better metric I presume South Korea is in another league entirely.