Here's another comparison in that vein: If Franz Josef Land [1] were as densely populated as Manila, it would be an archipelago nation of about 700 million peop

Here's another comparison in that vein: If Franz Josef Land [1] were as densely populated as Manila, it would be an archipelago nation of about 700 million people. But can you guess why it does not have 700 million people? The use of Russia, Canada, and Alaska as examples ends up being similarly hard to gain much from, because all it really says, in three different ways, is that the Arctic region does not have large human populations. True, but not very surprising or enlightening. One attempt at a different kind of comparison could be to first exclude land that is below some threshold of reasonable habitability, and then make the comparisons regarding the remaining land. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Land