• gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    Isn’t Africa rather thinly populated in general, or do i remember that wrong?

    Edit: just checked, Niger has 23 people/km², while germany has 230 pp/km².

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah, Niger is desert, basically. There’s a bit of sahel at one end, and of course oases, but it’s not a populous place, because of course it isn’t.

      1/10 of German density is actually impressive as hell, and probably why they’re poor even by African standards. Australia might be a better geographic parallel, at 3.7.

      If you look at Nigeria, the story is different, and some of the small West African states are going to be even more crowded. Africa as a whole is probably comparable to the next (edit: major) continent. You’re averaging over a lot of very different places, once you get to that scale.

      • gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org
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        43 minutes ago

        Yeah, Niger is desert, basically. There’s a bit of sahel at one end, and of course oases, but it’s not a populous place, because of course it isn’t.

        that ok, i understand. but how do you explain that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has 48 pp/km²? that one is surely no desert.

        • cameroon 39.7 pp/km²
        • Central African Republic 8.6 pp/km²
        • Gabon 10 pp/km²

        these are all central africa, surely no sahara desert there.

        again, germany, 230 pp/km² for comparison.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          3 hours ago

          Thanks! Hopefully people can pick out the Sahara themselves, while the red blob in west Africa would be mostly Nigeria.

          Same story in both of the Americas, at least. Few people live in the Canadian arctic or the Amazon, plenty live in the New York or Sao Paolo area.

          Asia has those mega-population spots, but the empty part is also bigger. With it sitting in front of me the mega-population spots still probably win. Non-Russia Europe is the same size and rough shape as India, but as a “continent” it’s pretty dense. while Australia and of course Antarctica are emptier.