4 ms·

> If we're trading references, can you show me some where the BBC refers to Paris as "one of the most densely populated places in the world?" "Tricks from the

by nl 5y ago

> If we're trading references, can you show me some where the BBC refers to Paris as "one of the most densely populated places in the world?" "Tricks from the most densely populated city... Paris is one of the most densely populated city in the EU with relatively few green spaces." https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p06sbtzz/tricks-from-the-most-densely-populated-city https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p06sbtzz/tricks-from-the-most... > The reason I consider this claim "misleading" is that I never see the "one of the most densely populated..." phrase on stories about Paris, Kathmandu, Seoul or any of the hundreds of more densely populated areas, yet I constantly see it in reference relatively much-less-densely-populated Gaza. War in dense urban areas is a special kind of hell. And it's not particularly rare to note dense population when it is especially relevant. > Officials in Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, have said the country is overwhelmed with the Rohingya population that has emerged in the Cox’s Bazar area. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/stateless-persecuted-rohingya https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/stateless-persecuted... > At first, Rwanda’s president, Juvénal Habyarimana, refused, protesting that Rwanda was among the most densely populated countries in the world https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/sep/12/americas-secret-role-in-the-rwandan-genocide https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/sep/12/americas-secret... > For four months in 2017, an American-led coalition in Syria dropped some ten thousand bombs on Raqqa, the densely populated capital of the Islamic State. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/21/americas-war-on-syrian-civilians https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/21/americas-war-o... > Withholding of more precise data raises eyebrows as rights groups remain sceptical of geographic coordinates in densely-populated areas. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/27/us-led-coalition-against-isil-resulted-in-civilian-harm https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/27/us-led-coalition-a...

sequoia 5y ago
From your examples only Bangladesh is referred to by reporters (not as a quotation) as one of the most densely populated in this case “countries” (which is much easier to count than “places”) in the world. (“Most densely populated places” means something different as of course cities are “places” and the definition of place is highly debatable as this thread shows.) Kudos & good examples. I still think this meme is attached particularly to Gaza but clearly it’s not exclusive.
- nl 5y ago
  > From your examples only Bangladesh is referred to by reporters (not as a quotation) as one of the most densely populated in this case “countries” Not true. Only is a quote (the Rwanda one) and two of the four quotes are not about countries (Raqqa - a city, and "densely-populated areas"). I partially deal with your quibbles on the definition of "place" here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27190788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27190788 But I think it's fair to compare similarly geographically sized areas, preferably with somewhat similar political status (ie, there's a big difference between a very dense city surrounded by countryside to support it, vs a city state with no surrounding support area) It's hard to find many places as big as the Gaza Strip (365 sq km) that are as densely populated (5610 people per square km). Dhaka is the most closely comparable city: 306 sq km with a density of 29,069 ppl/sq km. But a city isn't comparable to a territory like the Gaza Strip. That is more similar to islands, enclave or isolated country. On Wikipedia's list[1] Singapore (722 sq km, 7,894 ppl/sq km), Hong Kong (1106 sq km, 6781 ppl/sq km), Bahrain (778 sq km, 1,982 ppl/sq km), and Malta (316 sq km, 1,633 ppl/sq km) seem the obvious comparisons. The Gaza strip obviously sits right up there amongst them. It is difficult to argue it isn't one of the most densely populated places in the world looking at comparable "places". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...

by nl 5y ago

sequoia 5y ago

From your examples only Bangladesh is referred to by reporters (not as a quotation) as one of the most densely populated in this case “countries” (which is much easier to count than “places”) in the world. (“Most densely populated places” means something different as of course cities are “places” and the definition of place is highly debatable as this thread shows.) Kudos & good examples. I still think this meme is attached particularly to Gaza but clearly it’s not exclusive.

nl 5y ago
> From your examples only Bangladesh is referred to by reporters (not as a quotation) as one of the most densely populated in this case “countries” Not true. Only is a quote (the Rwanda one) and two of the four quotes are not about countries (Raqqa - a city, and "densely-populated areas"). I partially deal with your quibbles on the definition of "place" here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27190788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27190788 But I think it's fair to compare similarly geographically sized areas, preferably with somewhat similar political status (ie, there's a big difference between a very dense city surrounded by countryside to support it, vs a city state with no surrounding support area) It's hard to find many places as big as the Gaza Strip (365 sq km) that are as densely populated (5610 people per square km). Dhaka is the most closely comparable city: 306 sq km with a density of 29,069 ppl/sq km. But a city isn't comparable to a territory like the Gaza Strip. That is more similar to islands, enclave or isolated country. On Wikipedia's list[1] Singapore (722 sq km, 7,894 ppl/sq km), Hong Kong (1106 sq km, 6781 ppl/sq km), Bahrain (778 sq km, 1,982 ppl/sq km), and Malta (316 sq km, 1,633 ppl/sq km) seem the obvious comparisons. The Gaza strip obviously sits right up there amongst them. It is difficult to argue it isn't one of the most densely populated places in the world looking at comparable "places". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen...