# Densest State / Province of Your Country



## null (Dec 11, 2002)

Note: Tiny city states like Hongkong or Tianjin are not allowed.

China: Jiangsu Province:



Size: 102,600 km2 (39,600 sq mi) 
Population (2010): 78,659,903 
Density: 736 /km2 (1,910 /sq mi) 

_We have 7 cities (Xuzhou, Suqian, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Changzhou, Wuxi and Suzhou) with more than 1 million people in city proper, all prefecture-level cities have a metro population over 1 million._


Wikipedia:










Rural Density:











Jiangsu on the map:


----------



## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

If city states are not allowed, then it is Nordrhein-Westfalen for Germany. In 2010 it had a density of 532/km² with a population of 17.9 million people.

Since the land use is not so good visible on Google Earth, I post a map for it:










Red is residential areas, dark red commercial areas, dark green is forests, light green is grasslands, the light yellow area is farming land and the black areas are open pit mines. Between a half and two thirds of the State's population is concentrated in the Rhein-Ruhr-area, stretching from Dortmund to Bonn.


----------



## Dimethyltryptamine (Aug 22, 2009)

Australian Capital Territory
Population: 344,200 
Area: 2,358km2 
Pop Density 137/km2

:lol:


----------



## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

Dimethyltryptamine said:


> Australian Capital Territory
> Population: 344,200
> Area: 2,358km2
> Pop Density 137/km2
> ...


City states are not allowed


----------



## Dimethyltryptamine (Aug 22, 2009)

Well it's on par with most Dutch provinces, so I thought it would count. 

Either way in second place is Victoria with a population of 5,574,500 and an area of 237,629 km2, resulting in a population density of 24.51/km2


----------



## Fallout (Sep 11, 2002)

In Poland its Silesian voivodeship.

Data for Silesian (and whole country)
Population: 4 638 000 (38 501 000)
Area: 12 333 km2 (312 679 km2)
Density: 376/km2 (123/km2)


----------



## erka (Apr 26, 2003)

Netherlands as per 1/1/2012: 41526 km2 and 16.736.736 inhabitants = 403 per km2.

Provinces per km2
#1 South Holland 1.260 
#2 North Holland 1.013 
#3 Utrecht 891
#4 Limburg 522
#5 North Brabant 501
#6 Gelderland 404
#7 Overijssel 342 
#8 Flevoland 278
#9 Groningen 249
#10 Zeeland 214
#11 Friesland 194
#12 Drenthe 186

I think there are very few provinces/states (not city states) in the world that top South Holland.


----------



## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

*Canada*
3.7 people/square kilometre (34,670,352 people)


01. Prince Edward Island 24.7 (145,883)
02. Nova Scotia 17.4 (945,532)
03. Ontario 14.1 (13,445,408)
04. New Brunswick 10.5 (756,030)
05. Quebec 5.8 (8,013,073)
06. Alberta 5.7 (3,817,980)
07. British Columbia 4.8 (4,597,919)
08. Manitoba 2.2 (1,258,260)
09. Saskatchewan 1.8 (1,067,612)
10. Newfoundland and Labrador 1.4 (511,036)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_provinces_and_territories_by_population

All provinces except Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island contain huge swaths of uninhabited land. For example, about 95% of Ontario's population is concentrated in the south. If southern Ontario were a province, it's population density would be 96 people/square kilometre. That's still low compared to many parts of the world, but it would rank as the densest part of Canada.


----------



## xrtn2 (Jan 12, 2011)

Brasil











Minas state


----------



## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

^^
Complementing xrtn's post:

*Brasil*


















_Wikipedia_









http://confins.revues.org/2083

*Regions*

1. SUDESTE --- 86.92 --- 80,353,724
2. SUL --- 47.59 --- 27,384,815 
3. NORDESTE --- 34.11 --- 53,078,137
4. CENTRO-OESTE --- 8.75 --- 14,050,340
5. NORTE --- 4.10 --- 15,865,678

*States*

1. Distrito Federal --- 441.74 --- 2,562,963
2. Rio de Janeiro --- 366,01 --- 15,993,583
3. São Paulo --- 166.19 --- 41,252,160
4. Alagoas --- 112.39 --- 3,120,922
5. Sergipe --- 94.38 --- 2,068,031
6. Pernambuco --- 89.47 --- 8,796,032 
7. Espírito Santo --- 76.23 --- 3,512,672
8. Paraíba --- 66.74 --- 3,766,834 
9. Santa Catarina --- 65.54 --- 6,249,682
10. Rio Grande do Norte --- 60.00 --- 3,168,133 
11. Ceará --- 56.76 --- 8,448,055
12. Paraná --- 52.37 --- 10,439,601 
13. Rio Grande do Sul --- 37.96 --- 10,695,532
14. Minas Gerais --- 33.40 --- 19,595,309 
15. Bahia --- 24.83 --- 14,021,432 
16. Maranhão --- 19.78 --- 6,569,683 
17. Goiás --- 17.65 --- 6,004,045 
18. Piauí --- 12.40 --- 3,119,015
19. Mato Grosso do Sul --- 6.85 --- 2,449,341 
20. Rondônia --- 6.56 --- 1,560,501 
21. Pará --- 6.08 --- 7,588,078
22. Tocantins --- 4.98 --- 1,383,453
23. Acre --- 4.80 --- 732,793 
24. Amapá --- 4.68 --- 668,689
25. Mato Grosso --- 3.36 --- 3,033,991
26. Amazonas --- 2.21 --- 3,480,937 
27. Roraima --- 2.01 --- 451,227

^^
Up to the late 1990's, Rio de Janeiro was the densest.


----------



## gabrielbabb (Aug 11, 2006)

In Mexico the densest is the Federal District with about 8.5 million inhabitants in 1485 km2, which makes about 5,920.5 inhab/km2

It is the white one


----------



## WeimieLvr (May 26, 2008)

U.S. - New Jersey...459/km2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population_density


----------



## matija (Jun 17, 2012)

Excluding Zagreb, the most densely populated county (_županija_) of Croatia is _Međimurje_, at 164/km2 with an area of 730 km2.


----------



## Nexis (Aug 7, 2007)

*New Jersey​*
Population : 8.8 Million 
Density : 1189 sq mi (459Sq Km)
Largest Cities : Newark : Newark : 277,140 (2010) > 310,600 (2030) & Jersey City : 247,597 (2010) > 340,000 (2030)
Daily Transit Usage : 1.8 Million in 2012 > 4.7 Million by 2030 











New Jersey from the Air by KMJPhotography (TillyDog), on Flickr


New Jersey turnpike from the air by petchie75, on Flickr


Aerial - USA (#9700) by Kordian, on Flickr


Aerial - USA (#0607) by Kordian, on Flickr


----------



## NicSA (May 11, 2012)

South Africa - Gauteng

It is by far the smallest of the 9 provinces (only 1.4% of total land area) but has more than 20% of South Africa's population.

Population: 11.3 million
Area: 18 178 sqkm
Density: 623/sqkm

Largest Cities: Johannesburg, Pretoria


----------



## Wapper (Feb 24, 2011)

^^ Isn't the Mexico example just Mexico city? (thus a city state?)

That aerial picture of China is crazy by the way:nuts:. Has someone data about other Asian countries like India or Indonesia?


*Belgium* 
If we leave out Brussels (as a city state) the Antwerp province has the highest density (1.800.000 people on 2.876 km² => 615 inh/km²). The Belgian provinces are comparable to the Dutch provinces.

Besides, we also have a few regions (that are more like the German states). Again, if we omit Brussels (which is technically neither a province nor a real state), Flanders is the region with the highest density (6.250.000 people on 13.500 km² => 462 inh/km²).


Population density Belgium by Wappertien, on Flickr

The Antwerp province is in the blue circle and the Flemish region in the large green circle (sorry for the amateuristic look:sad2. 
The map was made by the Belgian statistical agency.

As you see, it is not a very good idea to leave out city states in a very small country, because it distorts the data. The city of Brussels is actually larger than its administrative region, so that the Brussels metropolitan area is divided over two regions. If you don't cut out its middle part (the Brussels region), the province of Flemish Brabant (in the very centre of Belgium) has clearly a higher density than the Antwerp province.


----------



## gabrielbabb (Aug 11, 2006)

Wapper said:


> ^^ Isn't the Mexico example just Mexico city? (thus a city state?)


Well I only considered the Federal District population which is 8.5 million, in the State of Mexico lives more than half of the population of the actual city with 12 million. I wouldn't consider Mexico City a city-state, there are still a lot of lost towns in the Federal District which are pretty far away from the urban area, and for us if you live in the Federal District or the State of Mexico it is still Mexico City for us.


----------



## Yuri S Andrade (Sep 29, 2008)

^^
Of course the Mexican DF is a city-state. IFor instance, it's smaller than São Paulo's municipality. Following the thread's rules, Mexico State is the densest state in Mexico.

An interesting fact though: put together, Mexico City, Mexico State and Morelos have 25,804,169 people living in 27,784 km², giving a density of *929 inh/km²*, higher than Jiangsu's.


----------



## megacity30 (Oct 8, 2011)

The Indonesian Provinces of West Java and Banten are among the world's densest non-city-state sub-national entities by population.

West Java contains the urban sprawl of Jakarta to its south and east, as well as the Bandung metropolitan area. However, 9 of its 17 regencies are primarily rural. Its overall population density is 1236 / sq km.

Banten contains the urban sprawl of Jakarta to its west, as well as many rural areas. Its overall population density is 1162 / sq km.

reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_subdivisions_by_population

When we compare that to the State of New Jersey in the US, which contains much of the urban sprawl of both New York City and Philadelphia, has an overall population density of only 459 / sq km.

However, Jiangsu Province in China would quite likely contain the world's highest rural built-up density.


----------



## megacity30 (Oct 8, 2011)

Perhaps the world's densest non-city-state sub-national entity is Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture.

Kanagawa Prefecture has an overall population density of 3740 / sq km, and contains the world's most populous suburb, Yokohama, containing 3.7 million people.


----------



## NorthWesternGuy (Aug 25, 2005)

^^OMG, what percentage of the prefecture is covered by built-up areas?

As for Mexico, the title goes for Mexico State (where virtually all the suburbs of Mexico City are located)

Land Area: 22,351 km2
Population (2010 Census): 15,174,272
Population density: *678.9 inh/km2*

Making a comparison, Mexicali municipality covers 14,560 km2 and has 936,000 people :lol:

Virtually all of Central Mexico is very dense. You have about 55 million people living in an area with slightly more than 200,000 km2.


----------



## invincibletiger (Oct 6, 2010)

*India*

Delhi: Density - 9340 per sq. km (Area - 11297 sq km)
Bihar: 1102 (94163)
West Bengal: 1029 (88752)


----------



## Metro007 (Apr 18, 2011)

It is not an administrative state but the *swiss midlands *(30% of the country area) have more than 5 Mio inhabitants on about 13'000 Km2, that makes *380* inh per sq. km


----------



## leverarch (Dec 24, 2006)

*United Kingdom*

England is by far the most densely populated country of the United Kingdom. Excluding Greater London, the densest regions of the UK are the North West and South East of England. The most densely populated non-metropolitan county of England is Surrey, with 678/km2.

England: 395/km2
Wales: 140/km2
Northern Ireland: 122/km2 
Scotland: 65.9/km2

Using the European Union's NUTS 1 statistical regions for the UK:

UKC. North East England = 293/km2
*UKD. North West England = 475/km2*
UKE. Yorkshire and the Humber = 328/km2
UKF. East Midlands = 267/km2
UKG. West Midlands = 405/mk2
UKH. East of England = 282/km2
UKI. Greater London = 1,572/km2
UKJ. South East England = 419/km2
UKK. South West England = 207/km2
UKL. Wales = 140/km2
UKM. Scotland = 65.9/km2
UKN. Northern Ireland = 122/km2


----------



## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

For England it Surrey


- Density 1,760 /sq mi


----------



## staff (Oct 23, 2004)

What's impressive about the Chinese provinces such as Jiangsu is their massive size in area. For example South Holland is a tiny province the size of a normal metropolitan area, whereas Jiangsu is larger than the Netherlands, Belgium and Nordrhein-Westfalen *combined* and still has extreme sustained density numbers across this area.


The most dense non-city state (like Stockholm County/Metro) province in (the sparsely populated) Sweden is Scania with 110/km2.


----------



## KiwiGuy (Jul 9, 2009)

It's probably Auckland with an insane ammount like 2,700 people or so. I don't know. We don't have provinces here, only regions governed by district councils.


----------



## Wapper (Feb 24, 2011)

staff said:


> What's impressive about the Chinese provinces such as Jiangsu is their massive size in area. For example South Holland is a tiny province the size of a normal metropolitan area, whereas Jiangsu is larger than the Netherlands, Belgium and Nordrhein-Westfalen *combined* and still has extreme sustained density numbers across this area.
> 
> 
> The most dense non-city state (like Stockholm County/Metro) province in (the sparsely populated) Sweden is Scania with 110/km2.


Okay, but you forget that Holland, Western Germany, Belgium and Northern France are all next to each other. That whole area also has quite a high density. The difference is that there are a lot more adinistrative divisions here.


----------



## Momo1435 (Oct 3, 2005)

Japan has several city prefectures, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka a

*TOKYO*

Tokyo Prefecture is not just the city but extends quite considerably into the mountains in the western part of the prefecture, but's still a small area compared to a Jiangsu Province. 

Tokyo Prefecture:
Land area: 2,187.66 km2
Population: 13,185,502
Density: 6,000/km2 

Right next to it is the already mentioned Kanagawa prefecture. It's also heavily urbanised with a green area in western part of the prefecture. 23% of the land area is actually designated as National Park. But on the other side there are the 2 main cities, Yokohama and Kawasaki both have a population of more then a million people. 

Kanagawa Prefecture:
Land area: 2,415.84 km2
Population: 9,029,996
Density: 3,740/km2

The other 2 urbanized prefectures bordering Tokyo are:

Saitama Prefecture:
Land area: 3,797.00 km2
Population: 7,190,817
Density: 1,893.82/km2

Chiba Prefecture"
Land Area: 5,156.15 km2
Population: 6,201,046
Density: 1,202.65/km2 

The greater area around around Tokyo is called the Kanto region, that might be a bit more comparable to some bigger regions/provinces/states in other countries. It's actually bigger then the Tokyo metro area with a population of 42 million.

*Kanto Region:*
Land Area: 32,423.90 km2
Population: 42,607,375
Density: 1,300/km2









http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantō_region


*OSAKA*

Osaka Prefecture is also very dense, but that's also a city prefecture.

Land Area: 1,899.28 km2
Population: 8,864,228
Density: 4,700/km2

The region around Osaka is called the Kansai Region, which includes the cities of Osaka, Kobe & Kyoto.

*Kansai Region.*
Land Area: 27,335.11 km2
Population: 22,757,897
Density: 830/km2


*NAGOYA*

Nagoya is the main city of the Aichi Prefecture

Land Area: 5,153.81 km2
Population: 7,408,640
Density: 1,437.51/km2

The region around Nagoya is called the Tokai region

*Tokai Region*
Land Area: 29,316.53km²
Population: 15,138,397
Density: 516/km2


These are the 3 regions in Japan with the highest population density. Those are also some of the densest regions in the world, not surprisingly for a country with a population density of 337.1/km2 on an area of 377,944 km2 out of which 73% is mountainous and therefore unsuitable for agricultural, industrial, or residential use.


----------



## willo (Jan 3, 2005)

in Spain it's Madrid

Land area:8,021.80 km2

Population: 6,489,680 inh.

Density: * 809 inh./km2 *


----------



## staff (Oct 23, 2004)

^^
No city states.



Wapper said:


> Okay, but you forget that Holland, Western Germany, Belgium and Northern France are all next to each other. That whole area also has quite a high density. The difference is that there are a lot more adinistrative divisions here.


I'm not saying the density in BeNeLux/Western Germany/Northern France isn't high-- it belongs to some of the highest in the world no doubt, just not as high as the Eastern Chinese provinces.


----------



## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

^^ The region of Madrid is bigger than the urban area of Madrid, so it is not a city state.


----------



## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

staff said:


> ^^
> No city states.
> 
> 
> I'm not saying the density in BeNeLux/Western Germany/Northern France isn't high-- it belongs to some of the highest in the world no doubt, just not as high as the Eastern Chinese provinces.


The one-child-policy will take care of that.


----------



## megacity30 (Oct 8, 2011)

Chrissib said:


> The one-child-policy will take care of that.


No, it won't. As per the UN's probabilistic median, China's population will still be greater than 900 million people in the year 2100 as shown below.

Also, roughly half of China's population is still rural; these 650 million people will become increasingly mobile in the coming decades, and hundreds of millions will move towards urban areas.

Provinces such as Jiangsu and Guangdong will become increasingly dense, and not the other way around. 









source: http://www.china-profile.com/data/fig_WPP2010_TotPop_Prob.htm


----------



## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

megacity30 said:


> No, it won't. As per the UN's probabilistic median, China's population will still be greater than 900 million people in the year 2100 as shown below.
> 
> Also, roughly half of China's population is still rural; these 650 million people will become increasingly mobile in the coming decades, and hundreds of millions will move towards urban areas.
> 
> ...


There are several problems with these probabilistic projections. The most likely path for China will be that it will follow the pattern of Taiwan, HK and Singapore. That means, China's fertility rate will decline to below 1.3 children/women within the next 20 years. The green line on your chart represents this scenario which is in my opinion the most probable one for at least the period to 2050. After 2050 the negative population momentum will be so huge that even if Chinese fertility jumps to levels over the replacement level the decline will continue.

Here you can see the fertility rate of China, HK and Taiwan plus the three scenarios for China:


----------



## megacity30 (Oct 8, 2011)

Chrissib said:


> There are several problems with these probabilistic projections. The most likely path for China will be that it will follow the pattern of Taiwan, HK and Singapore. That means, China's fertility rate will decline to below 1.3 children/women within the next 20 years. The green line on your chart represents this scenario which is in my opinion the most probable one for at least the period to 2050. After 2050 the negative population momentum will be so huge that even if Chinese fertility jumps to levels over the replacement level the decline will continue.
> 
> Here you can see the fertility rate of China, HK and Taiwan plus the three scenarios for China:


On the contrary, the graph has followed the UN probabilistic median in the period 2010 through 2012 and not the low variant projection. The 95% confidence interval has proved true. 

Currently,in 2012, China has an annual population growth rate of 0.56%. The accepted population estimate of mainland China is 1,331,349,519. This correlates with the median and the 95% confidence interval.

reference: 
http://worldpopulationreview.com/population-of-china-2012/


----------



## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

megacity30 said:


> On the contrary, the graph has followed the UN probabilistic median in the period 2010 through 2012 and not the low variant projection. The 95% confidence interval has proved true.
> 
> Currently,in 2012, China has an annual population growth rate of 0.56%. The accepted population estimate of mainland China is 1,331,349,519. This correlates with the median and the 95% confidence interval.
> 
> ...


The problem with these estimates is that they are based on incomplete and low-quality data. Due to the one-child-policy a measuring of the birth rate of China is impossible. Second to that 2 years is too early to tell which course China will take.


----------



## megacity30 (Oct 8, 2011)

Chrissib said:


> After 2050 the negative population momentum will be so huge that even if Chinese fertility jumps to levels over the replacement level the decline will continue.


The negative population momentum is, therefore, projected to gather about 2030. The population decline from 2030 will be gradual but continuous and not as drastic as indicated by the low variant.


----------



## megacity30 (Oct 8, 2011)

Chrissib said:


> The problem with these estimates is that they are based on incomplete and low-quality data. Due to the one-child-policy a measuring of the birth rate of China is impossible. Second to that 2 years is too early to tell which course China will take.


I completely agree with you on this; these are, after all, just statistical projections. Nature often doesn't obey mathematical logic.

It's too early to be certain which course China will take.

However, coming back to the present, how do the densest non-city European states compare to the densest non-city Chinese provinces, and how do they, in turn, compare to Kanagawa Prefecture (one of the world's densest non-city sub-national entities)?


----------



## sebvill (Apr 13, 2005)

In Peru excluding the city states of Lima and El Callao

The densiest Peruvian departments (states) are:

Lambayeque 91.5
La Libertad 66.9
Piura 48.2
Cajamarca 47.5

The least dense are 

Madre de Dios 1.3
Loreto 2.9
Ucayali 5.6

As for Lima department (excluding the city state) the density is of 12.6

The reds are the densiest, the green the least dense, the blue and orange are the two excluded city states (together they make one metropolitan area) and the black dots are the countries biggest cities.


----------

