Back in 2013, a meme circulated quickly off of a Reddit post that showed the incredible population density of the southeast corner of Asia.
You may have seen it: the satellite map showed, quite simply, that “more people live inside this circle, than outside of it”.
The Population Epicenter
We are in the business of explaining the world through compelling and intuitive visuals – and we thought that this powerful “meme” could use a refresh with some additional graphical context.
To start, we’ve used 2016 information on population. There are now at least 3.8 billion people living inside the highlighted circle, and that’s not even including the tally from countries that are partially in the circle like Pakistan or Russia.
The circle holds 22 of the world’s 37 megacities – massive cities that hold at least 10 million inhabitants. It also includes the five most populous cities on the planet: Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul, Karachi, and Shanghai, which alone combine to hold 144.5 million people.
This geographical region also holds many of the emerging markets of the future, countries that the World Economic Forum expects will lead global growth in years to come. Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh are in the area highlighted, and Pakistan is partially there as well.
Points of Interest
As a website called BrilliantMaps explains, there are some other subtleties to the circle that are worth detailing:
The circle contains a lot of people, but it also has:
•The highest mountain (Everest)
•The deepest ocean trench (Mariana)
•More Muslims than outside of it.
•More Hindus than outside of it.
•More Buddhists than outside of it.
•More communists than outside of it.
•The least sparsely populated country on earth (Mongolia)
What a fascinating world we live in.
Yes, but they could all, along with the rest of the world’s 6 Billion inhabitants, fit into their townhouses all within the State of Texas. The calculation: taking the land-area of Texas from Wikipedia and the world population figure of 6 times 10 to the 9th power: Every couple could have a townhouse and it would all fit within the Texas borders. Calculation: ( 6 Billion peeps/268,581.00 sq mi) x (1 sq mi/27.78288 million sq ft) = ~803 peeps per million sq ft or about 8 peeps per 10,000 sq ft or about 2 people per 2200 sq foot-townhouse lot size.
Interesting statistics but Texans might not like the idea….
Mongolia least Densely populated
As a resident near the center of the circle I can say that I haven’t seen a Negro in months.
Over population is just another meme by the few to turn the many against themselves.