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Countries with the Highest Population Density

Try to name the 24 countries that have the highest population density.
Density in people / square kilometer
Population as of 2 July 2023
Quiz by Quizmaster
Rate:
Last updated: July 3, 2023
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First submittedMay 24, 2012
Times taken130,258
Average score50.0%
Rating4.88
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Density
Country
17,822
Monaco
8,366
Singapore
2,273
Vatican City
1,943
Bahrain
1,737
Maldives
1,693
Malta
1,172
Bangladesh
661
Taiwan
Density
Country
656
Barbados
638
Mauritius
619
Nauru
557
San Marino
535
Rwanda
517
South Korea
512
Lebanon
476
Burundi
Density
Country
458
Comoros
451
India
442
Israel
425
Netherlands
423
Tuvalu
423
Haiti
391
Philippines
383
Belgium
+19
Level 57
Nov 8, 2012
ug. really struggled with this one - good quiz.
+19
Level 82
Feb 9, 2013
Bahrain at #4 is surprising. I know it's a tiny little country, but at the same time if you've ever been there you'll see that all the population is concentrated in the north, mostly in the northwest, and there's a big open desert in the southern part of the island with almost nobody.
+9
Level 17
Jul 30, 2013
Intersting
+35
Level 72
Jul 5, 2018
Fascinting
+13
Level 46
Jun 1, 2020
intrigung
+10
Level 57
Dec 14, 2020
Captiving
+1
Level 59
May 11, 2022
Not a word I've heard of before
+1
Level 60
Sep 14, 2023
Neither is Intersting.
+3
Level 69
May 11, 2014
Vatican City *facepalm*
+7
Level 67
Jul 12, 2016
It's funny that it isn't even a square mile! It's population is way smaller but because the area is smaller than the quiz asks for, the density is higher than the citizens there! :)
+3
Level 66
Dec 4, 2019
The quiz is in km²
+6
Level 79
Jan 20, 2020
@driehoek25 smartguy2 didn't say it wasn't in km2.
+5
Level 72
May 6, 2022
There are currently 4.08 popes per sq km in Vatican City (if you still count Herr Ratzinger). True story.
+2
Level 72
Sep 14, 2023
Well...
+1
Level 74
May 29, 2014
Rwanda? Wow.
+4
Level 82
May 31, 2014
Rwanda is tiny.
+3
Level 79
Jan 7, 2021
Slightly smaller than Belgium (30,689 km²) at 26,338 km².
+3
Level 75
Feb 5, 2022
Very fertile. Very densely settled rural areas.
+1
Level 83
May 29, 2014
This is one of the toughest I've done in a while. I had a hard time getting my mind away from population to population density. Hence I was initially shocked not to see China, Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Still... wow... Great quiz!
+4
Level 50
May 29, 2014
Well, all countries, with the exception of Malaysia, have enormous territories. That's why their population densities are lower than those stated. Canada is the lowest measured by population density, while it takes 2nd place in terms of territory.
+1
Level 50
May 29, 2014
Of course, by "all", I mean all you have stated in your comment :)
+8
Level 70
Apr 16, 2018
In what world does Japan have a huge territory
+11
Level 52
Dec 9, 2020
In the world of 1940.
+3
Level 71
Mar 3, 2021
Japan's not huge, but it's not tiny either. At any rate, it certainly has a high population density--it just barely got beat out by the Philippines.
+4
Level 82
May 31, 2014
Malaysia has a pretty small population.
+3
Level 58
May 7, 2022
34 million people is small? Or are you just being sarcastic.
+8
Level 87
Feb 8, 2020
China is not even close to dense. It is dense in the sense that the vast majority of the population is on the coast, but when spread throughout the country, which is how pop density is calculated, it is considerably low.
+2
Level 71
Aug 6, 2020
I think if you got rid of a lot of the sparsely populated, very large provinces such as Tibet and Xinjiang it would have a much higher density... there's a line which shows that 94% of the Chinese population live in a region that is less than half the total area of the country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heihe%E2%80%93Tengchong_Line
+2
Level 71
Aug 6, 2020
Same deal with Indonesia--according to Wikipedia, Java has a population density of 1,121 per square kilometer which means if it was independent, it would be just ahead of Bangladesh! But there are islands in Indonesia that are way bigger and way less densely populated than Java, which is why the overall density is actually ~141 (again according to Wikipedia).
+2
Level 45
Mar 5, 2016
I thought Singapore was going to be top (over 5 million people living on an island not much bigger than London) but, apparently not. Still, the top two are way, way, way ahead of the rest. Really amazing.
+2
Level 46
Jan 23, 2020
Well the top 2 are basically city-states so of course they have huge density. Monaco couldn't even exist of its own, its electric power is supplied by France.
+1
Level 67
May 6, 2022
My apartment is 26,385 pp / km ^ 2.
+1
Level 67
Apr 27, 2016
belgium is 368 people / km²
+2
Level 75
Apr 27, 2016
Can't believe I forgot Taiwan and Haiti. Nice quiz.
+1
Level 75
Jul 5, 2018
Got them this time around but forgot Vatican and San Marino. Sigh.
+1
Level 50
Jul 7, 2022
I can believe you forgot Taiwan and Haiti
+1
Level 63
Oct 5, 2023
How dare you forget San Marino
+1
Level 61
Apr 27, 2016
Sort of surprised to not see Andorra on here.
+2
Level 70
Apr 28, 2016
what would you expect? a country in the middle of the pyrenees? no international airport? very hard-to-navigate roads built to go to spain or france? not going to be many people there
+11
Level 82
Jan 19, 2018
The valley is very crowded, built up wall-to-wall, but most of the country are mountains.
+2
Level 35
Apr 28, 2016
Soon... Uganda,
+1
Level 88
Apr 28, 2016
Yeah, I tried Uganda but missed Rwanda. When Uganda didn't work, I skipped Rwanda and Burundi.
+2
Level 88
Jan 22, 2020
I got Rwanda and Burundi this time. Still surprised Uganda wasn't there. Just googled it and it's really not even close to making this list. *Only* 229 people/km2.
+1
Level 61
Apr 28, 2016
Somehow I managed to get the two least guessed countries - Mauritius and Comoros - but didn't manage to get Bangladesh.
+3
Level 71
Jul 28, 2017
Monaco 1 person in every 8 x 8 yard space (64 sq yrds)
+12
Level 74
Jul 29, 2017
bangladesh is a humanitarian disaster waiting to happen.
+5
Level 46
Mar 1, 2018
No kidding... one big flood or cyclone or earthquake away from possibly hundreds of thousands dead...
+2
Level 62
Jan 7, 2021
already happened in 1970...
+11
Level 71
Jan 29, 2021
Not really. Bangladesh's high population is indicative of, among other things, its high agricultural productivity. I don't know if it's self-sufficient, but it certainly can produce the food to support a large population. And while it's true that Bangladesh is natural-disaster prone, a lot has been done in recent decades to plan out how to deal with them, including a proliferation of storm shelters and planned evacuations. For comparison, the 1970 Bhola Cyclone killed 500,000 people, whereas recent cyclones like Amphan/Bulbul have killed a few dozen people each.

Sea level rise and flooding are definitely major issues, but not ones that will kill hundreds of thousands at once. And it's not as though population density correlates to humanitarian crises--the DRC and Somalia, for example, have way lower population densities than Bangladesh but are also much poorer and have more humanitarian crises.

+9
Level ∞
Jan 25, 2022
I used to think this too, but I've since realized just how wrong I was.

First of all, Bangladesh's fertility rate is 2.1, which is considered "replacement level". In the next couple decades, it will fall below replacement.

But the bigger issue is that technological progress has increased faster than the population. In fact, even adjusted for inflation, Bangladesh's GDP per capita has more than tripled in the last 30 years.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD?locations=BD

Bangladesh is doing better than ever and the risk of a humanitarian disaster goes down every year. There will be disasters here and there, but nothing like the Bhola cyclone which killed 500,000 people in 1970.

+1
Level 72
Jan 16, 2018
I missed 8, although I tried three of those 8 and must have typoed. Frustrating.
+3
Level 71
Jan 18, 2018
Data still in per square miles...

Quizmaster please correct it! Or correct the description..

+3
Level ∞
Jan 18, 2018
Fixed. I made the switch to international units but forgot to actually change the numbers with the latest update.
+5
Level 77
Jan 30, 2018
Honestly, who cares? Just eliminate the number entirely and just number them 1 thru 24. Were you struggling with number 11 but then thank goodness you happened to know that Lebanon has 596 people per square kilometer, so you got it? No. You did what everyone else did and guessed the countries that you thought fit the criteria. Neither the number NOR the units really matter.
+7
Level 66
Sep 23, 2019
I care, in this case it is VERY interesting info. It would be a waste not to show (otherwise why even bother putting them in order if it doesnt matter)

I find it very fascinating to compare the different density numbers. (especially when you take a lot at the countries behind the numbers and what they do and do not have in common)

+8
Level 66
Sep 23, 2019
Plus, you can tone down on the snide, I feel the hatred from here. Come on, how can such a simple subject cause you to spill out so much hate and bitterness!
+2
Level 82
Aug 6, 2020
buck's snide is perfectly warranted. These complaints are ridiculous and obviously just chauvinism (or, perhaps ironically, bitterness). If the data interests you you could look it up. It should not make it any harder or easier to take the quiz. His comment doesn't read as even remotely hateful or bitter to me. Maybe you're projecting.
+6
Level 59
Aug 6, 2020
@buck1017 I actually do know the population density figures for some countries, so yes, it helps to have them in people per square km.

@kalbahamut These complaints aren't "chauvinistic"... It's not like the International System of Units was only used in one country. It's literally used in the entire world except three countries (Liberia, Myanmar and the US).

+1
Level 82
Aug 6, 2020
tz: baloney. you're making my point for me.
+5
Level 32
Aug 7, 2020
How is this ridiculous? We just wanted the info on the quiz.
+1
Level 82
Dec 22, 2021
should be self-evident and was already explained besides.
+2
Level 72
Jan 18, 2018
Damned I've tried all the Caribbean islands except Barbados
+3
Level 77
Jan 30, 2018
What about the Principality of Sealand? Come on...
+2
Level 46
Apr 8, 2018
Actually, it has a population density of about 6.75.
+2
Level 66
Sep 23, 2019
The actual area is about 0,0005km² I think you missed a few 0's there, or did it in m² (and took 27 as the inhabitant number which is false, only a few legally lived there permantly others were temporary and even then never more than 10. latest data I found is that atm only a guard "lives" there. Since 1999 none of the bates family have lived there )

The actual number would be about 10.000/km² if you go by 5 people

+1
Level 79
Jan 7, 2021
It's not an officially recognised JetPunk country.
+1
Level 66
Jul 5, 2018
got Mauritius, missed India.
+1
Level 67
Jul 5, 2018
The UK must be a really near miss surely, if you take out Northern Ireland and just include the island of Great Britain, we have over 60 million people on one relatively small island, surprised we failed to make the list.
+2
Level 48
Jul 5, 2018
UK as a whole is 259 per square km.

Excluding Scotland, Wales and NI, England is 415 per square km, similar to the Netherlands. 🇳🇱

+1
Level 35
Feb 7, 2022
UK density is 277 per square kilometer and 717 per square mile according to Wikipedia.
+2
Level 59
Jul 6, 2018
Tough one! I tried to guess countries with small area and high population.
+1
Level 38
Mar 11, 2019
How did I miss India
+3
Level 72
Aug 29, 2019
Because it's physically big
+2
Level 32
Aug 7, 2020
So...
+2
Level 70
Jan 1, 2020
Very surprised no Uganda......
+2
Level 82
Jan 20, 2020
if population projections hold they should get on here easily within the next few decades.
+1
Level 61
Mar 9, 2020
monaco is the 2nd smallest country in the world, but around 40,000 people. dats dense.....
+1
Level 19
Apr 1, 2020
The smallest country is also on the list, that being Vatican City 🇻🇦
+2
Level 61
Mar 9, 2020
btw, what are the nearest misses
+3
Level 60
May 24, 2020
After the Philippines, the next countries would have been Japan, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Grenada, The Marshall Islands, St. Lucia, Vietnam, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the UK, Pakistan and Trinidad and Tobago.
+1
Level 88
Feb 5, 2022
Interesting! I guessed all but three of those countries.
+1
Level 60
Sep 14, 2023
I guessed all of them except the Oceanic ones (forgot Oceania existed).
+2
Level 50
Apr 21, 2020
I almost forgot taiwan because I don't count it as a country :P
+4
Level 70
Feb 5, 2022
Emperor Pooh Bear, is that you?
+1
Level 60
May 24, 2020
Oh great i tried Seychelles and figured if that's not in there then the other African island nations in the Indian ocean wont be either. turns our both of the others were.
+2
Level 57
Dec 2, 2020
Someone should remake this but only with countries over a certain area so all the microstates and tiny islands arent in there
+4
Level 79
Jan 7, 2021
It also exists. Here.
+1
Level 70
Mar 14, 2021
I am surprised Uganda is not on here
+2
Level 56
Apr 27, 2021
Weird - if you take out the islands and micro-countries, Bangladesh is more than twice as crowded as anywhere else. I wonder why that would be?
+1
Level 44
Feb 5, 2022
I misspelt Bangladesh 😐
+1
Level 78
Feb 5, 2022
Surprised not to see Lichtenstein
+1
Level 73
Apr 24, 2022
Got them all except India. "Surely, they can't have so many people that it overcomes their vastness of land." It appears I was wrong.
+1
Level 58
May 7, 2022
No Nepal? Nepal is small yet 30 million people live there.
+3
Level 44
Jan 11, 2023
it has lots of mountains mate, including mount everest
+3
Level 73
Apr 25, 2023
I don't think any of Nepal's mountains mated with one another; they're pretty icy
+4
Level 66
Sep 14, 2023
Peaks… valleys… connect the dots.
+1
Level 63
Nov 12, 2023
It's not that small.