2026-06-14 · people
Most humans crowd into a thin slice of land
Population density is not a world map of 195 colors. Gridded data shows more than half of us on the densest few percent of habitable land — while vast areas stay nearly empty.
Where people live shapes housing, transport, and public services — and humanity's footprint is far more concentrated than any country map suggests. Gridded population data shows about 52% of the world's 8.2 billion people live on the densest 1% of land, while the sparsest half of the planet's land area holds just 7% of us.
1 cell = 8.2 million people (0.1% of world population) · 1,000 cells
Context
The urbanization picture reinforces the point: under the UN's Degree of Urbanisation framework, about 80% of people now live in cities, towns, or suburbs. In 2020, cities were home to 3.5 billion people (44% of the global population), towns and suburbs to 2.8 billion, and rural areas to 1.6 billion.
Density varies hugely even among cities: Hong Kong packs roughly 7,000 people per square kilometer while Karachi exceeds 27,000, and New Delhi has grown about 50% denser than Shanghai despite the two reaching similar population sizes.
In recent decades, sub-Saharan Africa has been the world's fastest-urbanizing region: in Nigeria, the share of people living in cities rose from about 1 in 10 in 1950 to nearly 1 in 2 today.
Gridded population (GPW / OWID): ~52% on densest 1% of land; remaining shares rounded to 1,000 cells. Mid-2020s ~8.2B people.
Share and export
Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2026-06-14-world-population-density