Population Distribution

In 2019, the estimated world population was 7.7 billion people. Although this many people live in the world, they are very unevenly distributed. The population density varies greatly because some regions are densely populated while others are less populated. Less populated areas include polar regions, deserts and tropical forests. The map below shows the main population centres in the early 21st century:

• East Asia
• Southeast Asia
• South Asia
• Europe
• Northeastern United States
• Gulf of Guinea
• Southeast Brazil

In 2019, 4.6 billion people lived in Asia alone, representing 60% of the world’s population. In the same year, 1.9 billion people lived in South Asia and 747 million people lived in Europe.

Many more people live in developing countries than in developed countries. In 2013, about 5.9 billion people lived in developing countries while 1.3 billion people lived in developed countries. The world’s population is growing, especially in developing countries. Many wonder what impacts overpopulation will have, starting with issues with water and food resources.

Urban areas (cities) have a high population density. In 2008, more than half of all humans lived in urban areas. This is especially true in developed countries, which have already gone through industrialization and urbanization. In developing countries, the majority of the population still lives in rural areas, although the urban population is growing steadily, especially in Asia and Africa where urbanization is increasing. Industrialization is growing on these continents, resulting in many people moving to the cities.

Looking at the map of the most populated cities, most of them are located near the equator, in the intertropical zones. Cities with more than 10 million people are called megacities. 10 million is more than the population of the entire province of Quebec, which was 8 484 965 in 2019. Below is a list of the 15 most populated cities in the world, all of which are megacities.