Population Density

I have always liked maps and geography.  As a kid I used to flip through atlases looking at all the various countries, cities, mountain ranges.  Imagining myself flying to and from foreign places.  For this reason I am a huge fan of Google Earth and Google Maps.  Amazing technology.

As my departure date gets a little closer (20 days away!) more and more people are starting to know that I will be going to Japan.  A work colleague of mine who lived in Tokyo for two years told me that what might strike me the most of Tokyo is the number of people.  What did he mean?

Japan is divided into prefectures.  The Greater Tokyo Area is generally agreed upon to mean an amalgamation of four different prefectures - Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Tokyo.  The total urbanized land area covered by these four prefectures is about 8014 square kilometres.  This is a square that has sides that are approximately 90km long.  In this square live about 34 million people.  The population density per square kilometre is therefore about 4242.

I wanted to understand what this really meant....so I turned to Google Earth.  The picture pasted below shows a square that is about 8014 square kilometres in size.  I have placed it over southwestern British Columbia, Canada - an area known as the Lower Mainland - and the area of Canada that I live in.  


Now for some observations.
1) Imagine an area as large as that white square being completely urbanized.  Roads, buildings, railways, etc.  Built up, a city.  Wow.

2) Now consider these number comparisons:
Population of Greater Tokyo Area = 34 million
Population of Greater Vancouver = 2.1 million
Area of Greater Tokyo = 8014 square kilometres
Area of Greater Vancouver = 2877 square kilometres
Population density of Greater Tokyo = 4242 people per square kilometre
Population density of Vancouver = 729 people per square kilometre

3) A city with an area the size of Vancouver's would need a population of 12.2 million people to be similar in density to Tokyo.

I remember being amazed by the number of people in London, England.  Arriving in London from the north during rush hour and being carried by the crowds down the corridors of the train and tube stations.  That city "only" has a population density of 1130 people per square kilometre!  Hah!  Peanuts.  I agree with my colleague.....Tokyo will be an experience unlike any other on this planet.

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