Demographics
Mapped: The World Divided Into 4 Regions With Equal Populations
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World Map: Divided Into 4 Regions With Equal Populations
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At the most basic level, a standard world map tells us almost nothing about human population.
While the borders on a map may give us an idea of political boundaries or even aspects of continental geography, in reality they have little to do with showing population density.
That said, it is possible to apply one simple alteration to the world map so that we can make it more interesting from a population perspective – and it turns out that doing so can help us gain insight on where regional population density is the greatest.
Splitting Up the Map
Today’s map comes from Reddit user /u/OrneryThroat and it breaks up the world by grouping countries into four equally populated regions.
While both simple and crude, this mechanism does have some profound results:
| Region | Population |
|---|---|
| North America, South America, and West/Central Africa | 1.9 billion |
| Europe, East Africa, Middle East, and Northern Asia | 1.9 billion |
| South Asia | 1.9 billion |
| Most of Southeast Asia, China, and Oceania | 1.9 billion |
More specifically, there is one area that stands out from a visual standpoint, and it resides clearly in the southern portion of Asia.
Home to 1.34 billion people, it’s well-known that India already holds roughly 20% of the global population – but add Pakistan (195 million) and Bangladesh (165 million) into the mix, and you’re already closing in on one quarter of the global total.
Meanwhile, to get to a similar number, you’d need to add the entire populations of North America, South America, Europe, and Oceania together to even come close.
Shown Another Way
While splitting it into four equal portions is one way to transform the world map, here is another geometric route to conveying a similar idea about the world’s population density:
On a previous Chart of the Week, we showed that 22 of the world’s 37 megacities are located in the small circle above, putting into perspective the region’s population density in a similar but different way.
These simple transformations of the world map are not only memorable, but they also give our brain an easy heuristic to better understand the planet we live on.
Demographics
Charted: The World’s Working Poor, by Country (1991-2021)
This graphic shows the regional breakdown of the world’s working poor, and how this demographic has changed since 1995.
Creator Program
Charting Three Decades of the World’s Working Poor
Poverty is often associated with unemployment—however, millions of working people around the world are living in what’s considered to be extreme poverty, or less than $1.90 per day.
Thankfully, the world’s population of poor workers has decreased substantially over the last few decades. But how exactly has it changed since 1991, and where is the majority of the working poor population living today?
This graphic by Gilbert Fontana uses data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) to show the regional breakdown of the world’s working poor, and how this demographic has changed in the last few decades.
From Asia to Africa
In 1991, about 808 million employed people were living in extreme poverty, or nearly 15% of the global population at the time.
As the graphic above shows, a majority of this population lived in Eastern Asia, most notably in China, which was the world’s most populous country until only very recently.
However, thanks to China’s economic reforms, and political reforms like the National “8-7” Poverty Reduction Plan, millions of people in the country were lifted out of poverty.
Today, Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the world’s highest concentration of working poor. Below, we’ll take a closer look at the region and zoom in on select countries.
Zooming in on Sub-Saharan Africa
As of 2021, 11 of the 49 countries that make up Sub-Saharan Africa had a working poverty rate that made up over half their population.
Here’s a look at these 11 countries, and the percentage of their working population that lives in extreme poverty:
| Rank | Country | Working Poverty Rate (% of total population) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇧🇮 Burundi | 79% |
| 2 | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | 76% |
| 3 | 🇨🇩 DR Condo | 69% |
| 4 | 🇲🇼 Malawi | 65% |
| 5 | 🇨🇫 Central African Republic | 63% |
| 6 | 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau | 61% |
| 7 | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | 61% |
| 8 | 🇨🇬 Congo | 59% |
| 9 | 🇿🇲 Zambia | 56% |
| 10 | 🇦🇴 Angola | 52% |
| 11 | 🇱🇷 Liberia | 51% |
Burundi is first on the list, with 79% of its working population living below the poverty line. One reason for this is the country’s struggling economy—Burundi has the lowest GDP per capita of any country in the world.
Because of the economic conditions in the country, many people struggle to meet their basic needs. For instance, it’s estimated that 40% of urban dwellers in Burundi don’t have access to safe drinking water.
But Burundi is not alone, with other countries like Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo also having more than two-thirds of their working population in extreme poverty. Which countries will be able to able to lift their people out of poverty next?
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