Chinese population and geography:Chinese population and geography:
China is currently the world's largest nation.
This population density grid was extracted from eas-grid.zip, produced at the NCGIA and available from the EROS Data Center.
The image has been somewhat degraded in comparison with the original in order to produce a .jpg file of appropriate size that will load reasonably quickly over the Internet.
The population density levels have been set at the same break points as used on the map on page 16 of the Population Atlas of China (Oxford U. P., 1987), as displayed in the map below: red and darker areas are are the most densely populated sectors.
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| China's Population centers | China's Provincial districts |
Numeral on the map: Explanations.
#1) is a false reading China's largest freshwater lake: the Poyang Lake is in northern Jiangxi Province, to the south of the Yangtze River, with Mount Lushan to the west. Although the city of Nanchang with over five million inhabitants is in that sector of the province. The city's density is 1,800 people per square mile.
#2) By comparison is Shanghai with over 21 million and its surroundings with over 24.15 million inhabitants. The city has an average density of nearly 10,000 people per square mile.
#3) is a false reading -- a large lake
#4) Sian or Xi'an has 8.5 million inhabitants with 2,200 persons per square mile on average as it is adjacent to a larger metropolitan region.
5) not shown by a number, but Chongqing, once in Szechuan Province but separated in 1997, this is actually the largest metropolitan area in China with over 30 million people and an average density of 920 persons per square mile because it includes rural prefectures.
World population data comparisons | Extensive nations | Most populated nations | density discussed
l. At first glance, the gridded population data look really great.
However, a more careful look begins to reveal some strange things. For instance, there appears to be a huge city in eastern Jiangxi to the upper left of the numeral 1 on the image.
Take a closer look
2.Shanghai may be China's most populous city, but does the densely settled urban area really spread throughout the Municipality? Take a close look at Shanghai.
3. Most large lakes show up as white, meaning that there is no population data in the grid. But what about Dongting Hu in Hunan Province?
4. If you have a very good screen, you may be able to make out a tiny white dot in the middle of Xi'an Shi.
China Sources
June 16, 2004, revised :
June 23, 2014
