How empty is the Australian continent? Let’s read our post to help put the numbers into perspective.
Compared To The U.S States
Australia is of similar size to the lower 48 U.S. states. These U.S states have a population of more than 300 million people. Meanwhile, Australia only has a people of little more than 26 million. The U.S. even has two states that have more people than the entire Australian mainland. They are California with more than 39 million, and Texas with more than 28 million.
From A More European Perspective – How Empty Is The Australian Continent?
In fact, the population of only England without any factoring in any of the rest of the U.K. is more than double Australian’s.
Despite being a whole continent, there are actually 7 quite small islands across the world that have higher people than Australia. They are Great Britain, along with Honshu, Luzon, Mindanao, Java, Sumatra, and Madagascar. Java alone has nearly 6 times Australia’s tiny population. And surprisingly, this island is 60 times smaller than the Australian continent.
In Comparison With Other Cities
But it still gets even crazier because there are also a bunch of cities right now that have more people than the whole continent. The Tokyo, Jakarta, and Delhi urban areas all have greater populations than Australia. Meanwhile, the Shanghai and Seoul metro areas have roughly similar populations.
Sao Paulo, New York City, Cairo, Lagos, Mumbai, and Moscow all have largely comparable metropolitan populations to Australia.
Australian Population – How Empty Is The Australian Continent?
And all things considered, Australia only has five actual major cities across their continent. These cities account for the residences of nearly ⅔ of Australians. Australia is therefore among the most heavily urbanized nations in the world. The majority of the population around 90% mainly live in small urban areas. This number only accounts for 0,22% of Australia’s total land areas.
Overall, around 85% of all Australians live within just 50 kilometers of the coastline. It means that there’s hardly anyone deeper into the continent’s vast interior.
The shire of east Pilbara in western Australia is roughly the same size as Japan. But there are only a bit 10,000 people who live here. Adelaide, the fifth largest city in Australia, is home to more than 1.3 million people.
Adjacent to this oasis of urban life is the Pastoral Unincorporated area. This territory is roughly the size of France. But it’s only home to a whopping 3,750 people.
There is also the huge Anna Creek region that’s just larger than Isreal. And yet it isn’t a country or even a governmental entity at all. Anna Creek is actually a privately owned cattle ranch. It is the largest cattle ranch found anywhere in the world by far. It is only staffed by 8 full-time workers according to Wikipedia. So, this whole area is usually only home to less than a dozen people and around 10,000 cows.
Australia is truthfully empty.
Related Posts You Can Read:
Why is Australia called an upside-down continent?
