World population distribution

The world population distribution has the following characteristics:

The biggest feature of population distribution is imbalance. As far as the world is concerned, at present, only 7% of the land area on the earth is inhabited by 7% of the global population; More than 9% of the world's population is concentrated on less than 1% of the land; 35%-4% of the land on the mainland is basically uninhabited. Regionally, the population distribution among continents and countries is also unbalanced. The land area of Asia accounts for 29.4% of the world, but the population accounts for 6%(198). Among more than 16 countries and regions in the world, the total population of seven countries with a population of more than 1 million accounts for more than 55% of the world's total population. The population distribution between different regions within countries is also very uneven. For example, China is bounded by the Heihe-Tengchong line, and the land to the east of this line accounts for 42.9% of the country's total population, but the population accounts for 94.4% of the country's total population (in 1982).

The population is distributed in the horizontal direction, mainly in the northern hemisphere, where 9% of the earth's population lives, while only 1% in the southern hemisphere. In the northern hemisphere, the population is mostly concentrated in temperate and subtropical areas between 2 and 6 degrees north latitude. The population distribution also tends to be concentrated in coastal areas. The population is distributed in the vertical direction, and a large number of them are concentrated in relatively low-level places, and the population in high-altitude places is relatively sparse.

The population distribution often lags behind the development of productive forces and the transfer of economic centers. The reason is that the change of population distribution depends on the time accumulation effect of natural growth rate and net migration rate, and the speed is relatively slow. Only in the newly developed areas with a small population base can the immigration factor have a significant effect immediately. The study on the distribution characteristics and formation conditions of population (phenomenon) in the world, countries and regions almost constitutes the whole content of population geography.