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• The new population density rankings are in, and Shanghai is China's densest city with 16,982 people/km2. We go into further detail below.
All estimates are calculated using the populations and area within the urban center of each municipality.
China’s Population Density Patterns
China is still 1.4 billion people strong,
in a country that stretches across 3.7 million square miles (9.6
million km²). However, as seen in the map above, 94% of the Chinese
population lives east of the Heihe-Tengchong line, which is only 43% of
the country’s area.
A quick look at a geographical map of China reveals two major rivers flowing from west to east, eventually draining into the Yellow and East China seas. This leads to vast tracts of arable land. Food surplus then results in rapid population growth and urbanization.
Here are all of China’s cities with at least one million residents, from the 2020 census. Clearly noticeable are the provinces they are found in—on the eastern edge of the country, matching the population spikes seen above.
Source: Citypopulation.de
Finally, China’s most populous cities are also the densest but numbers can vary a great deal depending on which city boundary is considered. For example, Beijing’s administrative area is more than twice that of Shanghai and includes many rural districts. As a result, Beijing’s population density figures can vary between 1,300–13,000 people per km².
In contrast, the western part of the country, encompassing the Gobi Desert, Kunlun Mountains, and Tibetan Plateau, is largely inhospitable. Nevertheless, 6% of China’s population still resides in this region, which equates to 84 million people. This means that this half of the country is as populous as Germany.
Source: Visual Capitalist
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