Countries with the Lowest Population Density
Updated July 19, 2020 |
Infoplease Staff
The Least-settled Countries on Earth
Population density is a simple function of how many people, on average, live in a given area of a country. Density is a quick and reliable way of gauging how urbanized a country is—more and bigger cities tend to equal a higher density. There are a few caveats to this: the densest countries tend to be very small, as in a small country even a single city would drive up the average density by a huge amount; and, in countries with large unsettled areas, it might not adequately convey how densely settled the populated parts of the country are. These figures are from 2012 to 2019, based on the most current data widely available.
Rank
Country
Population Density
Population
Area
1
Greenland (Denmark)
0.03/km2
55,877
2,166,000 km2
2
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
0.04/km2
2,655
61,399km2
3
Falkland Islands
0.21/km2
2,563
12,173km2
4
Pitcairn Islands
1.2/km2
56
47.3km2
5
Tristan da Cunha (UK)
1.3/km2
266
207km2
6
Mongolia
1.9/km2
3,000,000
1,564,1002
7
Western Sahara
2.3/km2
567,421
252,120km2
8
French Guiana
2.8/km2
244,118
86,504km2
9
Namibia
2.9/km2
2,413,643
825,118km2
10
Australia
3/km2
25,259,928
7,692,024km2
Source: United Nations DESA.
NOTE: Country rankings like this aren't definitive, since country data vary enormously depending on the sources. The absence of reliable data on some countries requires their omission, which skews the results. We're only counting countries for which statistics were available from trusted sources.
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