The population density, expressed in the number of permanent residents per square kilometer of the territory, is called population density. There are various indicators of this density: population density of a village, city, region, country.
Why is this density recorded? There are many reasons. The main among them is the forecast of the labor resources of a certain region at present and in the future with the goal of building (or closing) social institutions (kindergartens, schools, institutes, etc.), residential buildings, opening factories and combines, etc. Uninhabited territory and large bodies of water when calculating density, as a rule, are excluded. For the rural population and for the urban population, indicators are applied separately.
The population density varies across continents, countries and their individual parts, being directly dependent on the nature of settlements, the size and density of the population. Large cities and urban areas have a higher density than, for example, rural areas. Therefore, in some cases, the term "average population density" is used. The average density is calculated by dividing the total number of people (continent, country, region, region) by the area expressed in km². If we convert the above into a formula, we get the expression: P. n. = P / Q.
The highest population density, not in China, which has already become a proverb, but in Monaco. According to the latest data, there are 16,500 people / km² in this principality. China stands only at 55th place, with a density of 141 people / km². In second place is the Republic of Singapore (7326 people / km²). The lowest density in Nunavut. There are only 0.02 people per square kilometer.
Russia is 180th in the list. Here, the average population density is 8.5 people / km². In the greater half of the country's area (and this is Siberia with the Far East), only three people per square kilometer. Resettlement in these territories is focal. Huge uninhabited spaces - the tundra, swampy middle, southern, and mountain taiga, where conditions are almost unsuitable for living. In some autonomous okrugs (Yamal-Nenets, Evenki, Chukchi, etc.) the density is even lower - 0.03 / km².
The highest population density in the capital and the region. In Moscow itself, the approximate density is 325 people / km², in the region, excluding Moscow, it is 141 people / km².
Interestingly, in larger regions (by area), the density is lower. The area of the central economic region is 483 km², and the density is 62 people / km²; West Siberian area - 2427 km², density - 2.5 people / km²; the area of the Far East - 6215 km², density - 1.5 people / km².
Such differences are explained by socio-economic, historical and natural-geographical factors. In the central regions of the country trade routes were laid earlier, and relations with other countries appeared. It was here that the population was concentrated, the branches of household complexes were developed, aimed at processing both their own and imported raw materials. But perhaps the main factor still remains the climate: the more suitable it is for people's lives, the higher the population density.
The poor development of the North, the Far East and Siberia is explained, as has already been said, by natural and geographical factors: orographic difficulties and too harsh conditions do not allow developing the infrastructure to a high level.
The Russian government launched a fight against overpopulation by presenting a program of so-called "labor mobility". The idea is somewhat similar to the Komsomol construction sites of the USSR, when young people were sent to raise virgin lands, and where prisoners and military personnel worked together with the foremost. A striking example remains BAM. I wonder what the old path will lead to. According to the program, the unemployed who moved from densely populated cities to undeveloped and depressed regions in 2012 will receive up to 120,000 rubles. Perhaps very soon we will be able to observe a massive relocation and a sharp change in population density ...