Book contents
- More People, Fewer States
- More People, Fewer States
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- 1 More People and Yet Fewer States
- Part I World Population Growth
- Part II Empire Growth
- Part III Trends and Interactions
- 14 How Top States Have Become Larger
- 15 How the Number of States Has Decreased, and What Is Ahead
- 16 Population Density, and Connecting World and Top State Populations
- 17 Growth–Decline Patterns and Durations of Empires
- 18 Empire Shapes, Languages, and Reigns
- 19 Cities and Empires
- 20 How History Fades – and Expands
- 21 The Future of the Super-Cancer of the Biosphere
- Book Appendix: Chronological Table of Major State Sizes, −3500 to +2025
- References
- Index
16 - Population Density, and Connecting World and Top State Populations
from Part III - Trends and Interactions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 June 2024
- More People, Fewer States
- More People, Fewer States
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- 1 More People and Yet Fewer States
- Part I World Population Growth
- Part II Empire Growth
- Part III Trends and Interactions
- 14 How Top States Have Become Larger
- 15 How the Number of States Has Decreased, and What Is Ahead
- 16 Population Density, and Connecting World and Top State Populations
- 17 Growth–Decline Patterns and Durations of Empires
- 18 Empire Shapes, Languages, and Reigns
- 19 Cities and Empires
- 20 How History Fades – and Expands
- 21 The Future of the Super-Cancer of the Biosphere
- Book Appendix: Chronological Table of Major State Sizes, −3500 to +2025
- References
- Index
Summary
While worldwide population density increased, that of the of most populous states stubbornly remained between 5 and 10 persons per square kilometer, from 3000 BCE to 500 CE. Expansion into less densely inhabited regions may not have paid off. The range has widened since. In hemmed-in India, density approaches 500 per square kilometer, while the largest empire, Russia, remains at 9, far below the world average of 60. It is not certain that imperial peace outweighs imperial taxes so as to boost population and hence, presumably, wellbeing. The evidence is mixed. Inexplicably, the population share of the most populous empire kept increasing proportional to the square root of world population from 3000 BCE to 1800 CE, but since then it has been decreasing. At the same time, the area share of the most populous empire kept increasing proportional to world population, and it also has been decreasing since 1800. In a crowded world, some five-millennia regularities are breaking down. We live in interesting times.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- More People, Fewer StatesThe Past and Future of World Population and Empire Sizes, pp. 255 - 265Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024