Only 5% of the world’s population lives in the entire blue region. For comparison, the same number of people live in the small red region.

Update: What this map looks like as an equal area projection, and why it would have been a poor choice

Believe it or not, it’s true. There are just as many people living in the small red area as there are living in all the blue areas combined.

This is a modified version of a map from reddit user Ibisdigitalmedia. When I first came across the original map, via the awesome Twitter feed of @NinjaEconomics, I was skeptical, so I went through and checked the numbers.

The original map turned out not to be entirely correct (the red region covered only about 3% of the world population), so I made this one from scratch based on the same concept.

Notice that the blue region covers more than just uninhabited deserts and tundras. It encompasses several prominent, powerful countries, including Australia, Ireland, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.

Can you identify the two countries within the red region?

The table below shows the full list of territories covered by each region, along with their 2014 populations.

For a related post, see: How Many U.S. Cities Can You Fit Inside Greater Tokyo?

For it’s size, Tokyo has the highest population density in the world.

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Blue region

Country Region Population Lithuania All 3,173,000 Estonia All 1,338,000 Norway All 4,985,000 Sweden All 9,437,000 Finland All 5,408,000 Latvia All 2,210,000 Australia All 22,280,000 Fiji All 828,046 Kazakhstan All 16,137,000 Mongolia All 2,809,000 New Caledonia All 266,000 Norfolk Island All 2,169 New Zealand All 4,436,000 Papua New Guinea All 7,440,000 Turkmenistan All 5,411,000 Republic of the Congo All 3,609,851 Central African Republic All 4,191,429 Gabon All 1,597,000 Oman All 3,110,000 Botswana All 2,068,000 Somalia All 10,295,000 Namibia All 2,352,000 Zambia All 14,440,000 Greenland All 57,475 Canada All 35,010,000 Uruguay All 3,412,000 Iceland All 347,000 Belize All 335,000 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya All 5,918,217 Mauritania All 3,623,000 Suriname All 540,000 Guyana All 757,000 French Guiana All 250,377 Western Sahara All 507,160 Mali All 14,478,000 Niger All 18,124,000 Saudi Arabia All 28,123,000 Bolivia All 10,610,000 Paraguay All 6,844,000 Chad All 12,620,000 Ireland All 4,804,000 Svalbard All 2,642 Falkland Islands (Malvinas) All 3,000 Vanuatu All 267,000 Solomon Islands All 472,419 Kiribati All 102,351 Galapagos All 25,000 Bahamas All 360,000 French Southern and Antarctic Lands All 0 South Georgia South Sandwich Islands All 0 Palau All 20,918 Micronesia All 103,549 Guam All 165,124 Northern Mariana Islands All 53,855 Greece Crete 620,000 Cyprus All 911,000 France Corsica 322,000 United States Alaska 736,732 United States Wyoming 584,153 United States Montana 1,023,579 United States North Dakota 739,482 United States South Dakota 853,175 United States Idaho 1,634,464 United States Nebraska 1,881,503 United States Utah 2,942,902 United States Kansas 2,904,021 Russia Northwestern Federal District 13,583,800 Russia Far Eastern Federal District 6,291,900 Russia Siberian Federal District 19,254,300 Russia Ural Federal District 12,082,700 China Qinghai 5,626,722 China Tibet 3,002,166 Brazil Roraima 496,936 Brazil Amazonas 3,873,743 Brazil Mato Grosso 3,224,357 Brazil Acre 790,101 Brazil Amapá 750,912 Brazil Tocantins 1,496,880 Brazil Pará 8,073,924 Brazil Rondônia 1,748,531 Brazil Mato Grosso do Sul 2,619,657 Argentina Catamarca 367,820 Argentina Chaco 1,053,466 Argentina Chubut 506,668 Argentina Corrientes 993,338 Argentina Formosa 527,895 Argentina Jujuy 672,260 Argentina La Pampa 316,940 Argentina La Rioja 331,847 Argentina Mendoza 1,741,610 Argentina Neuquén 550,334 Argentina Río Negro 633,374 Argentina Salta 1,215,207 Argentina San Juan 680,427 Argentina San Luis 431,588 Argentina Santa Cruz 272,524 Argentina Santiago del Estero 896,461 Argentina Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur 126,190 Chile Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena 159,152 Chile Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo 98,413 Chile Los Lagos 785,169 Sudan Western Equatoria 740,000 Sudan Western Bahar el Ghazal 220,000 Sudan Northern Darfur 1,600,000 Sudan Western Darfur 1,660,000 Sudan Southern Darfur 2,960,000 Sudan Northern State 610,000 Egypt New Valley 219,615

Red region

Country Region Population Bangladesh All 172,019,000 India Bihar 99,000,000 India Jharkhand 32,000,000 India West Bengal 90,320,000

If you want to work through the data yourself, you can download it here in CSV format.



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