Geography · Rung 10 of 12

Population and cities

Eight billion people spread very unevenly: more than half live in Asia, and two thirds of humanity fit inside a circle of five thousand kilometres' radius centred on southern Asia. Since 2007 more people live in cities than in the countryside. The largest urban areas are Tokyo, Delhi and Shanghai, and the fastest growing are in Africa, which will go from one point four to two point five billion people by around 2050. A population pyramid tells the story at a glance: wide at the bottom is a young, growing country; urn-shaped is an ageing, shrinking one. Density misleads without the physical map beside it: Egypt averages a hundred people per km² and 95 % live on 5 % of the territory, along the Nile.

Where this sits

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The world, country by country

Exercises from this rung

Generated by the app, from easiest to hardest

  1. Since when have more people lived in cities than in the countryside?

    • Since 2007
    • It has not happened yet
    • Since 1900
    • Since 1950

    Why In 2007 the 50 % line was crossed and today it is heading for 57 %. The speed is the striking part: in 1800 one person in twenty lived in a city. The change is uneven: in Europe and the Americas the process is nearly complete, while in Africa and southern Asia it is just starting, and that is where the century's cities will be decided.

    easier

  2. What share of humanity lives in Asia?

    • Close to 60 %
    • About 75 %
    • About 30 %
    • About 45 %

    Why Nearly six in ten people live in Asia, and China and India together alone are more than a third of the total. Africa is the second continent at 18 %, and growing faster than any other: by 2050 it will hold one in four people on Earth. Europe is at 9 % and falling, and in 1900 it was 25 %.

    in between

  3. Egypt averages about 116 people per km², similar to France. Why is that figure misleading?

    • Because almost everyone lives along the Nile
    • Because it counts the desert as inhabited
    • Because of tourists
    • Because the data is old

    Why The average spreads the population over the whole surface, including the Sahara, where almost nobody lives: 95 % of Egyptians live on 5 % of the territory. In the Nile valley and delta the real density passes fifteen hundred people per km², among the highest in the world. It is the same problem as any average: without the map beside it, or without the median, a summary number can describe a country that does not exist.

    harder