Visualizing Asia’s Massive Population Patterns By Density

Nearly 60% of the world’s 8 billion population lives in Asia: a vast continent sprawling over 44 million km², home to sprawling megacities, high-altitude deserts, the world’s biggest plateau, and impenetrable rainforests.

Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao visualizes Asia’s population patterns using data from WorldPop – a research group based out of the University of Southampton that tracks population growth and movement across the globe.

A spike on the map denotes higher population density.

Other figures in this article are sourced from World Population Review (population numbers) and the World Bank (area).

Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population

Immediately the map visualizes at impressive scale a rather well-known fact: that India and China together account for 35% of the world’s population just by themselves.

Pakistan (ranked 4th in population) and Bangladesh (ranked 5th) together account for another 400 million people.

The role of the Himalayas in this distribution is understated: the mountain range is a source of ten major rivers, flowing to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China, providing fresh water to 1.3 billion people in its watershed.

Rank	Country	Population	Area
1	🇮🇳 India	1,437,982,661	3,287,260 km²
2	🇨🇳 China	1,425,317,720	9,562,910 km²
3	🇮🇩 Indonesia	279,119,626	1,916,907 km²
4	🇵🇰 Pakistan	243,772,596	796,100 km²
5	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	174,173,808	147,570 km²
6	🇷🇺 Russia	144,101,449	17,098,250 km²
7	🇯🇵 Japan	122,833,540	377,974 km²
8	🇵🇭 Philippines	119,106,224	300,000 km²
9	🇻🇳 Vietnam	99,308,524	331,340 km²
10	🇮🇷 Iran	89,626,661	1,745,150 km²
11	🇹🇷 Turkey	86,127,389	785,350 km²
12	🇹🇭 Thailand	71,863,281	513,120 km²
13	🇲🇲 Myanmar	54,849,472	676,590 km²
14	🇰🇷 South Korea	51,756,284	100,430 km²
15	🇮🇶 Iraq	46,225,266	435,050 km²
16	🇦🇫 Afghanistan	43,026,322	652,860 km²
17	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	37,473,929	2,149,690 km²
18	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	35,522,965	448,924 km²
19	🇾🇪 Yemen	34,982,136	555,000 km²
20	🇲🇾 Malaysia	34,562,556	330,411 km²
21	🇳🇵 Nepal	31,136,781	147,180 km²
22	🇰🇵 North Korea	26,220,850	120,540 km²
23	🇸🇾 Syria	24,010,759	185,180 km²
24	🇹🇼 Taiwan	23,942,522	36,197 km²
25	🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	21,933,155	65,610 km²
26	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	19,764,158	2,724,900 km²
27	🇰🇭 Cambodia	17,071,236	181,040 km²
28	🇯🇴 Jordan	11,368,898	89,318 km²
29	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	10,448,636	86,600 km²
30	🇹🇯 Tajikistan	10,277,238	141,379 km²
31	🇦🇪 UAE	9,569,300	98,648 km²
32	🇮🇱 Israel	9,272,228	22,070 km²
33	🇱🇦 Laos	7,736,681	236,800 km²
34	🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan	6,807,948	199,950 km²
35	🇹🇲 Turkmenistan	6,573,631	488,100 km²
36	🇸🇬 Singapore	6,119,203	728 km²
37	🇵🇸 Palestine	5,494,963	6,025 km²
38	🇱🇧 Lebanon	5,257,501	10,450 km²
39	🇴🇲 Oman	4,692,824	309,500 km²
40	🇰🇼 Kuwait	4,337,703	17,820 km²
41	🇬🇪 Georgia	3,720,477	69,700 km²
42	🇲🇳 Mongolia	3,480,040	1,564,116 km²
43	🇦🇲 Armenia	2,777,979	29,743 km²
44	🇶🇦 Qatar	2,730,864	11,490 km²
45	🇧🇭 Bahrain	1,494,745	790 km²
46	🇹🇱 Timor-Leste	1,374,025	14,870 km²
47	🇨🇾 Cyprus	1,260,138	9,250 km²
48	🇧🇹 Bhutan	790,918	38,390 km²
49	🇲🇻 Maldives	518,765	300 km²
50	🇧🇳 Brunei	454,869	5,770 km²

Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.

Other countries that are covered by red: Indonesia (ranked 4th in population), Japan (ranked 7th), and the Philippines (8th), are all some of Asia’s most populous countries.

They also have some of the world’s densest cities:

• Manila: 42,857 people/km²

• Mumbai: 28,195 people/km²

• Karachi: 24,000 people/km²

• Jakarta: 14,464 people/km²

Tokyo and Beijing—despite being some of the world’s largest cities by population—record lower densities in comparison, helped by their much larger administrative areas.

But when sorted by average population density across the entire country, the ranks look a little bit different.

Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population Density

The city state of Singapore is the densest country in Asia, with more than 8,000 people/km². Far behind it, the similarly sized in area Bahrain has one-sixth the population and ranks second (1,892/km²) in Asia’s densest countries.

Rank	Country	Population Density
1	🇸🇬 Singapore	8,405 people/km2
2	🇧🇭 Bahrain	1,892 people/km2
3	🇲🇻 Maldives	1,729 people/km2
4	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	1,180 people/km2
5	🇵🇸 Palestine	912 people/km2
6	🇹🇼 Taiwan	661 people/km2
7	🇰🇷 South Korea	515 people/km2
8	🇱🇧 Lebanon	503 people/km2
9	🇮🇳 India	437 people/km2
10	🇮🇱 Israel	420 people/km2
11	🇵🇭 Philippines	397 people/km2
12	🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	334 people/km2
13	🇯🇵 Japan	325 people/km2
14	🇵🇰 Pakistan	306 people/km2
15	🇻🇳 Vietnam	300 people/km2
16	🇰🇼 Kuwait	243 people/km2
17	🇶🇦 Qatar	238 people/km2
18	🇰🇵 North Korea	218 people/km2
19	🇳🇵 Nepal	212 people/km2
20	🇨🇳 China	149 people/km2
21	🇮🇩 Indonesia	146 people/km2
22	🇹🇭 Thailand	140 people/km2
23	🇨🇾 Cyprus	136 people/km2
24	🇸🇾 Syria	130 people/km2
25	🇯🇴 Jordan	127 people/km2
26	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	120 people/km2
27	🇹🇷 Turkey	110 people/km2
28	🇮🇶 Iraq	106 people/km2
29	🇲🇾 Malaysia	105 people/km2
30	🇦🇪 UAE	97 people/km2
31	🇦🇲 Armenia	94 people/km2
32	🇰🇭 Cambodia	94 people/km2
33	🇹🇱 Timor-Leste	92 people/km2
34	🇲🇲 Myanmar	81 people/km2
35	🇧🇳 Brunei	79 people/km2
36	🇺🇿 Uzbekistan	79 people/km2
37	🇹🇯 Tajikistan	73 people/km2
38	🇦🇫 Afghanistan	66 people/km2
39	🇾🇪 Yemen	63 people/km2
40	🇬🇪 Georgia	54 people/km2
41	🇮🇷 Iran	51 people/km2
42	🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan	34 people/km2
43	🇱🇦 Laos	33 people/km2
44	🇧🇹 Bhutan	21 people/km2
45	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	17 people/km2
46	🇴🇲 Oman	15 people/km2
47	🇹🇲 Turkmenistan	13 people/km2
48	🇷🇺 Russia	8 people/km2
49	🇰🇿 Kazakhstan	7 people/km2
50	🇲🇳 Mongolia	2 people/km2

Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.

Bangladesh, with 1,180 people/km², has the rare distinction of being a top five Asian country by both population and average population density.

Meanwhile, India is 9th in population density (437 people/km²), its large landmass bringing down the average considerably.

Similarly, China nearly breaks into the top 20 with a population density of 149 people/km². Despite its vast population, the country’s immense size presents a challenge, particularly in its western regions, which are largely inhospitable to substantial human settlement due to the presence of mountains, the Tibetan plateau, and two deserts.

At the bottom of the rankings, Mongolia (2 people/km²) and Kazakhstan (7 people/km²) are some of the least dense countries in the world.