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JLeslie's avatar

Are you hearing on cable that Gaza is the most densely populated place in the world?

Asked by JLeslie (65714points) December 8th, 2023 from iPhone

I’ve heard statements like that more than once, and I’m just thinking that can’t possibly be true. Did I hear them wrong? Is that true? Without even looking up numbers I would guess Manhattan is more densely populated.

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24 Answers

Caravanfan's avatar

It’s not. Macau is.

LadyMarissa's avatar

I don’t have cable, but I’m NOT surprised that’s what’s being said. Newsweek lists Gaza as “one of the” not “the” most populated. One quote I heard a while back said Gaza had 40K people per sq mi where Manhattan had 75K per sq mi. I didn’t fact check it because I didn’t find it important at the time & now I don’t remember who actually said it & I’m NOT interested in knowing the actual facts. Now you have something to do on the next cool, rainy day while bored.

JLeslie's avatar

I’d bet lots of cities around the world are more densely populated. Doesn’t make sense.

smudges's avatar

Monaco is either 1st or 2nd depending on which site you use. Macau is the other one.

75K per sq mi?! Ackkk!

gorillapaws's avatar

If you factor in the nearly 2 million people that have been displaced into an even smaller area and the notable absence of remaining vertical structures, I wouldn’t be surprised if southern Gaza currently has the highest concentration of people at ground level. Though that density is thinning out as Isreal continues to massacre civilians.

Lightlyseared's avatar

Manila 119k per sq/mi

cheebdragon's avatar

Post war? Extremely unlikely.

Forever_Free's avatar

Gaza population density is 14k per square mile.
NYC = 29K
Macau = 55K

Entropy's avatar

Certain PARTS of Gaza are the most densely populated. Not the whole thing. But that caveat often gets left off.

Forever_Free's avatar

^^ Certain office tower buildings are also more densely populated.

janbb's avatar

I imagine any population would feel pretty dense if bombs are being dropped on you!

JLeslie's avatar

I wasn’t trying to downplay the havoc and horrors happening in Gaza. It certainly qualifies as urban warfare and the injury and death toll is hard to fathom.

I’m just tired of inaccuracies in reporting. People look to talking heads on TV as though they research and care and too often they just repeat bad data.

Most of the bombing is where the population has been thinned out, the death toll would be much much higher if they hadn’t evacuated, but also there has been bombing in some of the places that were supposed to be safer and are heavily populated.

SnipSnip's avatar

That just means the number of people on the amount of land available. I don’t know that this is true but important to understand the claim is not that Gaza is most populated place.

jca2's avatar

The links I provided have all kinds of details.

flutherother's avatar

Gaza’s hospitals are the most densely packed in the world I would guess and I didn’t even have to look that up.

zenvelo's avatar

Isla Vista CA was the most crowded place in the United States in the early 70’s. 18,000 students in one half square mile.

Zaku's avatar

Maybe they’re talking about one particular closet that is stuffed full of people at the moment. ;-)

rebbel's avatar

Getting more and more densely populated, now that they’re rounded up in the South.
Then again, the butchering will bring the population down.

Demosthenes's avatar

If the Gaza Strip were a nation, it would be the 5th most densely populated in the world, between Singapore and Hong Kong, two small city-states.

So while it is not the “most densely populated place” (and let’s acknowledge that “place” is a vague enough term that something like an office tower couldn’t be excluded from such a ranking), it is certainly very densely populated and that density is largely due to the lack of movement afforded to the population.

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