Australia, with an area of 7.69 million, is still sparsely populated after 300 years of colonization.

Australia, located in the southern hemisphere, is the only country in the world that monopolizes the whole land, with an area of 7.69 million square kilometers and the sixth largest land area in the world. It is a truly vast country. However, with a vast territory, the total population of Australia is only 25.44 million, which is almost equivalent to the permanent population of China and Shanghai. Therefore, the country's average population density is only 3.2 people per square kilometer.

The population density of China is 144.3 people /km2, which is dozens of times that of Australia. Even Tibet, the province with the lowest population density in China, has a population density of only 2.8 people /km2, which is not far from Australia, but obviously, Australia's environment is far superior to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Then, why has Australia been in a problem of vast territory and sparsely populated for more than 300 years?

Map of Australia

Australia is vast and sparsely populated, so it should be analyzed from a historical perspective. Australia, located in the southern hemisphere, is the newly discovered continent in the world. Before the arrival of European colonists in the18th century, the whole of Australia was covered with forests, grasslands and deserts, and there were only about 250,000 to 300,000 indigenous people living in this land. They are scattered all over the Australian mainland, forming more than 500 tribes of different sizes. These indigenous tribes still adhere to the life of primitive society, and most of them still make a living by hunting and gathering.

Population density distribution map of Australia

/kloc-At the end of 0/8, British colonists took the lead in immigrating to Australia. These immigrants occupied the most fertile land along the coast of Australia with advanced labor production tools and foreign guns. Indigenous people living in Australia, who used to migrate, forage and hunt freely, were occupied by these colonists. Indigenous people can only be forced to live in uninhabited tropical forests on the Australian mainland;

Not only that, these foreign colonial rulers also used their usual brutal and terrorist means to persecute and even openly slaughter the aborigines, resulting in a large reduction in the aboriginal population in the Australian mainland. Those lucky enough to survive can only continue to endure the slavery and exploitation of the colonists. It is precisely because of the small number of indigenous people in Europe, coupled with the slaughter of these colonists, that Australia's already small population is even rarer.

The beautiful scenery of Australia

Secondly, Australia's small population is closely related to the country's natural environment. More than two-thirds of Australia's area belongs to arid and semi-arid areas, which are desert and semi-desert areas unsuitable for human survival. The original aborigines and later colonists can only settle in the marginal areas with abundant water resources and fertile land on the Australian mainland. So far, most cities in Australia are located in coastal areas. It is precisely because there are not many places suitable for human habitation that the population of Australia has not shown explosive growth in the past 300 years.

Gold Coast

Finally, because the total population of Australia mainly depends on immigrants, but because the Australian colonial authorities have adopted racism? White Australia policy? As well as the two world wars in the 20th century, Australian immigrants have been in a state of stagnation for many times. If there is no large-scale international immigration and only rely on the few remaining Australian aborigines and a few foreign colonists, it is really difficult for Australia's population to explode. Therefore, in this long period of more than 300 years, Australia still maintains a situation of vast territory and sparsely populated.