EARTH. 



249 



would thereby forfeit its claim to trustworthi- 

 ness. The population of Australia and Poly- 

 nesia is so small that large variations in the 

 several estimates are not possible. For the 

 whole of the continent of Australia we now 

 have the statements of the official census. In 

 regard to America, it is amusing to notice the 

 discrepancy between the writers of the second 

 and third group. After a long period of uncer- 

 tainty, almost every state of North and South 

 America now provides from time to time for a 

 census, and the present estimate of 84,000,000 

 may be said to be as well vouched for as the 

 population of Europe. The greatest discrep- 

 ancies still occur in Asia and Africa. Between 

 the estimates of the African population by 



Berghaus and Reden, there is a difference of 

 more than 200,000,000. The trustworthy ac- 

 counts which of late have been received about 

 several countries in Asia and Africa agree in 

 showing in many countries as dense a popula- 

 tion as had been assumed by the highest for- 

 mer estimates. Thus British India, for which, 

 in 1861, a population of 135,000,000 was as- 

 sumed, had, according to an official census 

 taken in the several provinces in 1869 to 1871, 

 more than 190,000,000. At all events, the ar- 

 guments given for the highest estimate of the 

 population of Asia and Africa appear to be 

 well grounded, and the low figures which still 

 appear in many geographical works not to be 

 warranted. 



III. Density of Population. If we compare 

 the area of the grand divisions of the world 

 with their population, we see that the average 

 number of inhabitants on a square mile is 80 

 in Europe, 47 in Asia, 18 in Africa, 5 in Ameri- 

 ca, and 1.5 in Australia and Polynesia. If the 

 density of the population of the earth equaled 

 that of Europe, the total population would be 

 4,164,960,000; if it equaled that of Belgium, 

 the most densely peopled country of the world, 

 it would be 23,504,000,000. Almost three- 

 fourths of the inhabitants of the earth, that is 

 946,000,000, live in Europe, India, and China, 

 that is not even one-seventh of the earth's sur- 

 face. For the other six-sevenths there remain 

 about 445,000,000 inhabitants, or 10 to the 

 square mile. Assuming that even one-half of 

 this thinly-settled country, including the large 



and small deserts, the steppes, the northern- 

 most parts of Asia and America, is unable to 

 support a larger population, there still remain 

 about 21,000,000 square miles which are fully 

 able to support a much larger population than 

 at present. If this territory had the mean 

 density of Europe, or 80 to the square mile, 

 its population would be 1,470,000,000 more 

 than at present, an increase exceeding the en- 

 tire present population of the earth. 



If we divide the earth with regard to the 

 density into three groups, one with more than 

 four hundred inhabitants to the square mile, 

 one with from one hundred to four hundred to 

 the square mile, and one with less than one hun- 

 dred inhabitants to the square mile, we obtain 

 the following table, giving Asia the largest 

 number of inhabitants and Europe the next : 



