World population density by latitude (2022)

This map, published by Alasdair Rae for Visual Capitalist in 2022, shows the world's population density at each degree of latitude.

To do this, the author determines how many millions of people live at each degree of latitude and, based on this, assigns a gradient ranging from dark blue to dark red, passing through white. Dark red represents regions where there are more millions of inhabitants per degree of latitude.

The strip between the 25th and 26th parallels north is the most densely populated, with nearly 279 million inhabitants. All the strips between the 22nd and 38th parallels north each have more than 150 million inhabitants, which is not surprising since they cover densely populated regions such as northern India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, southern Japan, Iran, Mexico and Egypt.

Sources

• Mapped: The World’s Population Density by Latitude