ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of population distribution in Asia at various scales. Asia represents today close to 60 per cent of the world’s population, but its relative share has started now to level off due to low fertility in China and Japan and anticipated decline in the rest of the continent. Asia as a whole appears to be five times more densely inhabited than other continents. Yet, it is less urbanized than the rest of the world and population density varies strikingly across countries. Density levels range from two persons per sq. km in Mongolia to 1,050 persons in Bangladesh. The analysis shows that half of Asia’s inland surface shelters a mere 6 per cent of its population while the densest 13 per cent of its surface carries more than half of Asia’s population. The chapter provides a description of the diversity of human settlements across Asia, ranging from desert areas to some of the densest population concentrations in the world such as desakota regions. These differentials in population density are more related to historical and ecological conditions than to recent demographic dynamics and urbanization processes.
