Some time ago the List Universe published a list of the 10 most densely population countries or territories of the world. By way of comparison, here are the 10 least densely populated countries or territories.
(note: different sources give different figures, so there may be some discrepancies)
population 3,068,742; area 1,025,520 km2; density 3.0 people/km2
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is a country in northwest Africa, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, Senegal on the southwest, Mali on the southeast and east, Algeria on the northeast, and the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara (about which more later) on the northwest. In an area roughly the size of Ontario or Egypt there are 3 million people and not much else.
population 309,672; area 103,000 km2; density 3.0 people/km2
The Republic of Iceland is an island country in Northern Europe, located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland (about which more later). In an area roughly the size of Kentucky or the former East Germany there are 300,000 people and a lot of geezers (or maybe geysers).
population 449,238; area 163,820 km2; density 2.7 people/km2
The Republic of Suriname is a country in northern South America, bordered by Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, French Guiana (about which more later) to the east and the Atlantic ocean to the north. In an area roughly the size of Wisconsin or Tunisia there are 450,000 people and possibly more languages spoken than in any comparable country.
population 21,050,000; area 7,682,300; density 2.6 people/km2
The Commonwealth of Australia is a continent island country located between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In an area roughly the size of the contiguous 48 states of the USA or almost twice the area of the European Union, there are 21 million people and the world’s most venomous snakes. Two-thirds of the people live in 5 major cities, all located on the coast. Very few of the snakes do.
population 2,031,252; area 824,292 km2; density 2.5 people/km2
The Republic of Namibia is a country in south-west Africa, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, South Africa to the south, Botswana to the east and Angola to the north. In an area roughly the size of Ontario or Pakistan there are 2 million people and massive problem with HIV/AIDS.
population 187,056; area 90,000 km2; density 2.1 people/km2
La Region Guyane is an overseas department of France, located on the northern coast of South America, bordered by Suriname (see number 8) to the west, Brazil to the south-west and the Atlantic ocean to the north. Like the other overseas departments, French Guiana is also an overseas region of France, one of the 26 regions of France, and is an integral part of the French Republic. In an area roughly the size of Maine or Portugal, there are 187,000 people and the spaceport used by the European space agency.
population 2,646,487; area 1,564,116 km2; density 1.7 people/km2
Mongol Uls is a landlocked country between Russia and China in Central/East Asia. It is the world’s second largest landlocked country (after Kazakhstan) and the least densely populated independent country. In an area roughly the size of Quebec or Iran, there are 2.6 million people and the world’s smallest stock exchange.
population 440,000; area 266,000 km2; density 1.3 people/km2
as-Ṣaḥrā’ al-Gharbīyah is a territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria in the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement (and government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) dispute control of the territory. In an area roughly the size of Colorado or New Zealand there are 440,000 people, a lot of sand and not much water.
population 3,060; area 12,173 km2; density 0.25 people/km2
The Falkland Islands are a group of two main islands and 776 smaller islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, 480 km from the coast of Argentina. The islands are a self-governing Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom, but have been the subject of a claim to sovereignty by Argentina since the re-establishment of British rule in 1833. In an area roughly the size of Connecticut or Northern Ireland there are 3,000 people and 583,000 sheep.
population 56,916; area 2,175,600 km2; density 0.026 people/km2
Grønland / Kalaallit Nunaat is an ice-covered island between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, lying to the north-east of Canada. It is the world’s largest island and is a self-governing province of Denmark. Though geographically a part of North America, Greenland is politically and historically associated with Europe, specifically Iceland, Norway, and Denmark. In an area larger than Alaska and roughly the size of Saudi Arabia there are 57,000 people and 2.85 million km3 of ice.
This article is licensed under the GFDL because it contains quotations from Wikipedia.
Contributor: astraya
Which genius decided to name an ice covered island Greenland
It was green as recently as 1100AD.
I don't know if you're joking, but Greenland has nothing to do with it being green. It comes from the Viking word Gronland (with the little line through the O) which means Ground.
As in Ground Land.
Iceland means East land, as in, east is land. It has nothing to do with ice.
Teddylingus: I don't know if YOU're joking, but I hope to God you are! You obviously have NO bloody clue what you're talking about, stop polluting people's minds with stuff have obviously know very little about.
Greenland does indeed stem from the danish "Grønland", and being that danes were also vikings once, I guess you earn a point in that regard.
However …
The word "grøn" has one meaning, and one meaning only – green! The colour, green.
The name was given after Erik the Red (gungho viking warrior and chieftain) was exiled from Norway, then Iceland, and landed on a country with verdant rolling hills and gently sloping valleys covered in green grass. The Greenland coastline is, contrary to popular belief, not covered in ice and snow all year round – only the inland stays that way.
So, arriving in the summertime would see you greeted by a slightly chilled, but green land.
Hence a very obvious name – Greenland!
Iceland was named in the same manner, only by settlers who went visiting over the winter part of the year and found everything covered in snow and ice.
It's all very simple really, so simple infact that many people don't think it can be so.
Also, the danish word for "ground" is "jord."
Or if we must find a slightly similar word in regards to looking like the word "ground", "grund" would do the trick, but refers more to a specific lot of land than, say, terra firma.
Likewise, the danish ord for "east" is "øst", and has nothing to do with Iceland being "East Land" – seriously, where do you get this stuff!? Stop making up sh*t!
because Iceland is already taken
Well, smart-ass, when the Vikings came to that land, they did not want others to come take the green land over so they called it Iceland.
First comment! Yay.
Stupid Australia, good for nothing.
I’m from Australia. What country you from, then?
I like geographical lists, interesting.
Nice quality list! Good pictures, too.
I like this list…at least i am one to the top 5 to comment
YEAH! Go Australia (no I’m not Australian, but I’m not a prick like Ginger either.)
Smeghead: funnily enough, Greenland is mostly covered in ice, and Iceland is mostly green! Bizarre! I can see a new list forming….
YEAH AUSSIE PRIDE.
Greenland and Iceland should swap names, then all the confusion would be ended
I read somewhere that Iceland was named that way to keep invaders away. I guess the thinking was that no one wants to take over an iceberg.
Nice list Astraya and Jfrater, thanks for the brain food
Id like to point out how this list says “…populated nations” while half of these arent independent nations including:
-greenland
-western sahara
-the flakans
-suriname
-french guinea
Should be least densely populated “territories” or “regions”
Either way a very good list… I wanna visit the guineas some time soon, look beautiful!
Furthermore I was doing some research a few weeks ago, does anyone realize that the Mongols, when they conquered most of the world, had only about 200,000 people total? This is kinda crazy!!!
no wonder no one lives in greenland. . .look at the state of the houses.tis like a kids tv show or something with the bright colours
Aussies can take pride in being such a sparsely populated country yet achieving so much.
j – they need the brightly coloured houses to counteract the depressingly icy landscape!
Australia is the World’s largest island, not Greenland. It is also a country and continent so why was “island continent” crossed out?
Even the Wikipedia article about Greenland which has been copy/pasted for this list says “Greenland is, by area, the world’s largest island which is not a continent in its own right.”
I was wondering the same thing paulyt. Maybe someone was having a Sarah Palin moment.
AUSSIE PRIDE
I knew we’d be on there
The best story about the relative size of our sparsely populated country – Europeans don’t realise it takes 12? 13? hours to reach Sydney from Melbourne…
Not like everywhere else where you can practically drive to the next country in a few hours… ahh Europe.
Yayy!!! An astraya list after a long time.
Nice!! very nice!!!
Keep it comin mate
The fact is not the facts that are listed above but the humour that is sparsed in it….. Or something like that
Thanks for the photos, Jamie. Gosh, that was quick work.
Thanks for the comments so far.
1) I thought about restricting the list to fully independent countries, but included the territories because I thought that the first list included Macau, Hong Kong etc. I just checked and it doesn’t. .
2) Australia is a continent. Greenland is an island. That is irrelevent to this list. There has always been debate about Australia’s geographical status, which is why I struck through those words.
Possibly Greenland was named to entice settlers (possibly from Iceland). The wikipedia article mentions that the southern part of the island is ice-free, and is actually green in summer.
Ginger: I toyed with the idea of writing an over-the-top description of the natural and built environments of Australia and the good looks/intelligence/humour/generosity etc etc etc of its people, but decided not to, out of modesty, even though it’s true.
danielle: I often point out to Koreans how big Australia is. One student mentioned catching a bus from Sydney to Byron Bay, which took about 14 hours. I measured that on a map and ended up somewhere around Vladivostok.
Two typos: the first sentence of the introduction should read “the 10 most densely populated countries …”. Item number 5 should be “Suriname [bracket] see number 8 [end bracket]”. The system interprets “8 – end bracket” as a smily face, which is nice, but potentially confusing.
No, Ostrayan not stupid….
they just racist
Hey I like how it has continent island striked out. It empasises that they don’t know what they are. But being a New Zealander seeing you Aussies in any list that we are not is just not on. Thumbs down from me….lol
I toyed with the idea of writing an over-the-top description of the natural and built environments of Australia and the good looks/intelligence/humour/generosity etc etc etc of its people, but decided not to, out of modesty, even though it’s true.
Oh…pleeeeeaase…gag..hahaha
All good.
Them Houses in Greenland look discusting
whereas, your spelling looks awesome.
grok: No, Ostrayan not stupid….
they just racist
Which goes a long way towards explaining why I am currently living and working in Korea and married a Korean woman earlier this year.
During the MVP (Medieval Warm Period) Greenland was green: Data from ice cores indicate that between AD 800 and 1300 the regions around the fjords of southern Greenland experienced a relatively mild climate, with growing trees and herbaceous plants and farming of livestock.
The name Greenland comes from Scandinavian settlers. In the Icelandic sagas, it is said that Norwegian-born Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder. He, along with his extended family and thralls, set out in ships to find the land that was rumoured to be to the northwest. After settling there, he named the land Grænland (“Greenland”).[19] Greenland was also called Gruntland (“Ground-land”) and Engronelant (or Engroneland) on early maps. Whether green is an erroneous transcription of grunt (“ground”), which refers to shallow bays, or vice versa, is not known. It should also be noted, however, that the southern portion of Greenland (not covered by glacier) is indeed very green in the summer and was likely to have been even greener in Erik’s time because of the Medieval Warm Period.
Yes this if from Wiki and I’ve read this before on other sources.
Google is evil!
Well, I got the whole striking through thing in regards to the confusion about Australia’s status. Go you Aussies.
I really liked this list, although the bit in parenthesis, “(about which more later)” from #8 made my inner grammar nazi cringe. That aside, interesting and informative list!
it would be interesting to live in a place like this. i live in houston, tx which is crazy populated and traffic that makes you want to drive into walls. i can’t imagine having that few people to bump into.
I want one of the brightly colored houses in Greenland! Long live the hermits!
So as soon as I saw both Iceland and Greenland on the list it instantly made me think of D2:The Mighty Ducks. I don’t know if anyone has ever watched these movies but in the second one they compete in the Junior Olympics or something like that and they team they are playing in from Iceland. At one point the coach ask the trainer from the other team why anyone would want to live in a place covered with ice. She then explains that Iceland is green and Greenland is Ice. I will forever remember that.
What “Sarah Palin moment,” Teapixie?? Are you one of the liberals with less than half a brain who is swallowing the line that Palin said that Africa is a country, something that first graders know is not true, and you are repeating it because (1) you actually believe she said it, or (2) you don’t give a ***** about the truth? I think you tend toward the latter, myself.
Canada would be 12th on the list
By the way, jfrater, great list.
I want to go to Mongolia…………..a colleague just left work to go on the trans-Siberian express from Moscow to Beijing, passing through Mongolia before spending 4 months travelling around Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. I’m soooooo jealous.
Flock O’ Seagulls,
I assume Teapixie used the phrase “Sarah Palin moment” because Ms. Palin is a *****ing retard.
No need to get so politically uptight in a list that has nothing to do with it. Jackass.
@10. maximuz04:
Do some research about what a nation is. They aren’t states but they’re nations.
Even more, if you read the description it’s said that almost all of them are somehow in an independence process.
@3. Smeghead:
Erik the Red lied for revenge. XD
Realist–It’s none of your damn business. I wasn’t speaking to you. Now get off your daddy’s computer and go back to playing in your sandbox, you little *****.
I just wish for a way to get more Americans to move to the Snake habitats of Australia
“Realist–It’s none of your damn business. I wasn’t speaking to you. Now get off your daddy’s computer and go back to playing in your sandbox, you little *****.”
Seriously, what are you basing that on?
Why don’t people respond with sense/reasoned arguments rather than personal attacks* and pleas for silence?
*Ironic, isn’t it**?
**Geddit?
okay great Australia is on there and well deserved!!!
BUT
WHAT ABOUT CANADA???
What about Canada? Isn’t the US close to the top 15? Not sure, thought I read that somewhere…
Good work, astraya.
I literally burst out laughing at the comment about “Most Australians live in cities. Few of the snakes do.”
Looks like FlockO’Seagulls is getting his panties in a bunch. Even the most seemingly innocent lists can spark the fuel for a heated exchange…
It’s a great list by the way. Kudos to astraya.
Iceland has one of the YOUNGER populations of the world with a younger than average world median age. Don’t be a dick ‘astraya’.
Astraya, seeing as you are currently living in South Korea, perhaps you could make a list about the most racist, xenophobic, nationalistic and jingoistic countries in the world?
Just a thought…
viking – I’m in the UK and I demand my deposit back from Glitner Bank!! Otherwise you’re all nothing but terrorists!
Seriously, Gordon Brown is a complete *****, and I think you’ll find most Brits were outraged at his recent actions.
Astraya – nice list!
Very good, well-researched list.
Damn I would love to live in a bright colored house like that!
about Greenland:
use Google Maps (or Google Earth) and look at Greenland from satellite.
WHAT THE HELL is that black stripe as big as a superstardestroyer that you can see laying in the middle of Greenland???
Western Sahara # 3Morocco is mostly desert, it covers the northern section of Africa, and spreads over almost all of the “top” of the continent. It is the largest hot desert in the world, as well as the second largest desert on earth after Antarctica.
The Sahara covers all or part of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, MOROCCO, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and WESTERN SAHARA.
If you are planning a sight seeing trip take your own sun block and dark glasses.
Fantastic list astraya – well researched.
Thanks
49. Suskis: According to Google Earth´s measure ruler, the object located at:
Lat: 70°28’38.24″N
Long: 40° 8’15.48″W
is 80 km. long and 15 km. wide, it looks like some kind of transparency in the clouds and as a glitch in the program.
Thanks to French Guiana, the country with which France has the longest terrestrial border is…. Brasil !!!
Geography is weird.
astraya, wonderful list! Very informative, which makes it a winner in my book.
3. Smeghead: Which genius decided to name an ice covered island Greenland
****
Actually, it was a public relations ploy. Iceland used it too, in reverse.
Greenland wanted to attract more settlers, and without the advantages of pictorial imagery, names could tell you something about a place. Greenland sounded, well, green and lush. So that’s what they named it.
Iceland, on the other hand, wanted to discourage settlers, so naming the place Iceland, which brings up images of constantly being icebound and snow-covered, was a good move.
So, in a way, it *was* genius. It worked, didn’t it?
psychosurfer: or is is something that had to be covered, like a military airport and something near?
I am definitely not a political junkie and I think it’s exciting that Obama won. However, I DO think the political comments need to end. First off, no one wants other people to call them stupid. Second, this site is not strictly for (US) Americans. Third, this list has nothing to do with Sarah Palin and very little (possibly) to do with politics.
Great list though, Astraya, interesting stuff. And funny too!
Just wondering what the nationalities are of the people calling Australians the most racist people on earth? Australia has had its problems with racism in the past, but so has all the other former colonies like the USA, Canada, South Africa ec. If anything its a left over vestige of the old British attitude towards non-whites.
There are far more bigotted people in the world today; the Chinese and Russians, for example, are not the kindest people to their neighbours. I don’t think you’ll find too many Tibet-style problems in Australia
now I want to move to Greenland haha
Graet list astraya! Im sitting in my office right now wanting to be in Suriname (#6)
lol its funny, at one point in time Mongolia used to be the 2nd largest empire of all time.
@35. JayBe
I “know” what a nation is to the most someone can know such a vague term which is somewhat invented and imaginary. If you take the definition as it was coined, any territory in which people feel some sort of connection with each other could be considered a nation. Montana could be considered a “nation” but it doesnt really make sense to put them on this list right?
I was taking the definition of a “nation-state” which is also vague but a little more defined to what has been recognized as an independent state. I didnt see anywhere that says they are in the process of being independent (and I dont think this is true either but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt). But if independence wasnt a requirement, why make it a point?
Lately for some reason, whenever something I say is even slightly wrong (and it does happen, I dont always check my sources because I am too excited at the list) I get slammed. I dont get corrected, I get chastised for inputting something, why is that? Cant you (you being a general term, not singling you out) just correct me and let it be?