MapGEO

Geography facts, with the reasoning attached.

Population facts: where the people are

Population is the statistic that most reliably beats intuition, because it is distributed far less evenly than the map suggests. A circle drawn on one part of Asia contains more people than the entire rest of the planet.

  1. New Zealand is famous for sheep outnumbering people. Roughly what is the ratio now?

    About 5 sheep per person

    New Zealand has roughly 25 million sheep and about 5.2 million people, so close to 5 to 1. In the early 1980s the flock peaked above 70 million and the ratio was over 20 to 1.

    Source: Stats NZ livestock and population figures

  2. Greenland is about the size of western Europe. Roughly how many people live there?

    About 56,000

    Greenland covers about 2.17 million km2 but has roughly 56,000 people, nearly all on the ice-free southwestern coast. That is about one person per 39 km2.

    Source: Statistics Greenland

  3. Greater Tokyo's population is closest to that of which country?

    Canada

    Greater Tokyo holds roughly 37 million people and Canada about 40 million, so one metropolitan area is within a tenth of the world's second-largest country by area. Australia is about 27 million.

    Source: UN World Urbanization Prospects; World Bank population data

  4. Roughly what share of the world's people live in the northern hemisphere?

    About 87 percent

    Around 87 to 90 percent of humanity lives north of the equator, because that is where most of the land is: the northern hemisphere holds about 68 percent of the Earth's land area.

    Source: Gridded population datasets, e.g. NASA SEDAC

  5. The Hu line, drawn across China in 1935, divides the country how?

    Most people live on one side

    Hu Huanyong's line runs roughly from Heihe to Tengchong. The southeastern side holds about 43 percent of the land and roughly 94 percent of the population, a split that has barely moved in ninety years.

    Source: Hu Huanyong, 1935; subsequent Chinese census analyses

  6. Which island has the most people living on it?

    Java

    Java holds about 155 million people on roughly 130,000 km2, more than half of Indonesia's population on about 7 percent of its land. Honshu, second, is around 100 million.

    Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS); Japanese census

  7. Roughly how many people are citizens of Vatican City?

    Around 800

    Vatican citizenship is tied to office rather than birth and covers roughly 800 people, including the Swiss Guard and members of the clergy. It is the smallest population of any sovereign state by a wide margin.

    Source: Holy See statistics

  8. Which territory has the highest population density in the world?

    Macau

    Macau packs roughly 20,000 people per km2 into about 33 km2. Monaco is comparable; among larger sovereign states Bangladesh and Singapore lead.

    Source: Statistics and Census Service of Macau

  9. How much of humanity lives in Africa?

    About 18 percent

    Africa holds roughly 1.4 billion of about 8 billion people, and is the fastest-growing region, projected to be around a quarter of humanity by 2050.

    Source: UN World Population Prospects

  10. Which country now has the largest population?

    India

    India passed China during 2023, both at roughly 1.42 billion. China's population has since begun falling while India's continues to grow slowly.

    Source: UN World Population Prospects, 2023 revision