r/interestingasfuck • u/Hilltopseeker • Mar 23 '23
When you think of over crowding, think of this: China population is over 1B , whereas the US has only 320M.
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u/ResponsibleShampoo Mar 23 '23
Now do India
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u/Dr_Weirdo Mar 23 '23
Smaller and more populated than either.
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u/Sprite_is_Better Mar 23 '23
Will surpass China in population next month!
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u/sKY--alex Mar 23 '23
I thought that already happened
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u/roniadotnet Mar 24 '23
I think neither country is capable of counting its population precisely anyways.
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u/wowwee99 Mar 24 '23
Yeah I suspect between China inflating figures and India not really knowing where to start, the long standing gap was meaningless. I suspect India has had a larger pop for a while
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u/plaird Mar 24 '23
India also never had any child limits so it's population is a lot more evenly distributed
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u/Aizen10 Mar 24 '23
It's cuz India's census has been getting delayed for two years now. We can only get a clearer pic once the govt actually gets to it.
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u/rigorousSpaying Mar 24 '23
In last month they did and surely now they are going to be there for some time now.
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u/errorspending1 Mar 24 '23
Already did, there are some reports suggesting India is already number one in that matter.
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u/FalseStart007 Mar 24 '23
It doesn't matter, you're missing the entire point of the post, the reason the US can easily hold 320 million people and China can barely hold 1 billion is because our country is shaped better, when China shaped their country they didn't think about the long term, now they're stuck with that stupid shape.
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u/wierd_typer Mar 24 '23
As a neighbour of China believe me they are trying everything to change that shape
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u/BitterCaterpillar116 Mar 24 '23
Made me laugh but it’s the sad truth, as someone who lived in China a long time
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u/Pandataraxia Mar 24 '23
How could they change shape without influencing your politicians or trying at taking your terri... oh. Uh OH!
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u/wutthefvckjushapen Mar 24 '23
This sounds like a quote from Cunk on Earth lol
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u/QC_Fil Mar 24 '23
But small population also means you can provide them the good infrastructure is well, so it is very easy for them to shape in good way while large population mean more problem.
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u/Stunning-Remote-5138 Mar 24 '23
The old" Political Geometry" . When soft science goes hard.
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u/hindereddinner Mar 24 '23
Now do Canada 😂
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u/vonvoltage Mar 24 '23
I'm ok up in Labrador with with 1.4 people per square kilometer thank you very much.
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u/GetSwampy Mar 24 '23
India is soooooo crowded. People literally everywhere. There is seemingly nowhere to go in India where you have personal space
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u/KrasnyRed5 Mar 23 '23
Isn't most of China's population crowded along the coast as well?
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u/lazypenguin86 Mar 23 '23
Yea im pretty sure alot of China is desert and mountain plains
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u/VariousHumanOrgans Mar 23 '23
Alot of the us is desert mountains and plains.
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u/JoeyRocketto Mar 23 '23
But no commas!
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u/IdaDuck Mar 23 '23
Yes. But similarly 80% of Americas live in the eastern third or so of the continental US. And a huge chunk of the remaining 20% are in California.
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u/CyberneticMidnight Mar 23 '23
Came here to say this. Both USA and China's midwest's are barren deserts.
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u/Due_Platypus_3913 Mar 23 '23
Our”Midwest “ is far from barren.Tall grasslands,rivers,and a bajillion hectares of cultivated farmland.Drove across a couple years ago.Most of it’s not even as flat as you might think.No actual mountains, but nowhere near completely flat.
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u/weedyscoot Mar 24 '23
Are you talking about what Americans call the Midwest? Or the actual middle section of the western part of the country? Because we all the know the Midwest is definitely not in the western, or even middle-western part of the country.
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u/andrewb610 Mar 24 '23
Just spent time in outside Kansas City and even on the Kansas side it was very hilly.
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u/Apart-Maize-5949 Mar 23 '23
Never heard someone call the Midwest a desert before. You Chinese?
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u/foundoutafterlunch Mar 23 '23
Australia is roughly the same size and only 10% of US population.
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u/Disastrous_Range_571 Mar 23 '23
Yeah but way more things kill you there
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u/Bugg_24 Mar 23 '23
Queensland is the melanoma capital of the world. Even the sun is out to get you.
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u/rizo109 Mar 24 '23
Super mario bros 3 world 2?
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u/Butterbuddha Mar 24 '23
LOL yeah Australia is like the half way point where the sun comes down to snuggle with ya.
Man I always hated that level
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u/thiccyoshi4568 Mar 24 '23
I love how non-aussies think that visting Australia is a death wish.
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u/lysergicDildo Mar 24 '23
Yeah it's hilarious. It's like they don't know that wolves, bears, moose, vipers, venomous spiders & big cats (just to name a few) don't exist on the same landmass as them.
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u/GirthWoody Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 24 '23
I think it’s really funny that Australia has that rep when it’s basically the opposite. They’re are basically 0 predators that could kill a human, and you are way more likely to get bit by a snake just about anywhere in the US then by something venomous in Australia.
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u/Teflaro Mar 24 '23
Wait. Is this real? Steve Irwin though…
But really. Bears and big cats generally leave you alone. Do all the venomous snakes leave you alone in Australia? I feel like I see so many medivac helicopters from snakes bites
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u/TheHoundhunter Mar 24 '23
Steve Irwin being killed by a stingray was a complete fluke. There are something like five recorded deaths from stingrays.
The other thing to consider is that Irwin purposely sought out and got up close with dangerous animals every day of his life. He is statistically an outlier.
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Other things to note:
The last spider death was in the 80s.
one or two people a year die of snake bite. You have to be fairly remote to encounter a snake, and more remote to not have access to anti-venom.
one person a year dies from crocodiles. Usually from drunkenly swimming in rivers that are known to have crocodiles. They are only in the far north.
There are a few shark bites a year, but usually they are non fatal. Sharks rarely actually attack, they are just curious.
Honey bees kill about 12 people a year. That’s more than all of the above combined.
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u/Teflaro Mar 24 '23
How often do you have venomous snake bites? Working in a small ER, we had one per week or two in the summer months. But this is extremely reassuring
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u/TheHoundhunter Mar 24 '23
Apparently there are about 3000 bites a year, only 400 need anti-venom.
Anecdotally, it’s farmers who get bit. Snakes only really bite if you interact with them. Most people just walk the fuck away from them and are fine. Farmers are more likely to have interactions with them.
I spend a decent amount of time out in the bush. I have seen maybe ten snakes, nearly stood on two, and one swam past me in a river. None were at all aggressive. They all just wanted to get away from me.
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u/IReplyWithLebowski Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 24 '23
Sting rays are all round the world and leave you alone, unless you hassle them.
And yes, the wildlife in Australia will generally leave you alone, they can’t eat you so won’t bother you.
Edit: I have to say, probably except crocs, who can and will eat you. But they’re up in the far northern tropical areas where only crazy people and Queenslanders live.
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u/Teflaro Mar 24 '23
Good to know. It’s back on my bucket list. I’m irrationally scared of snakes and generally try to plan vacations where there are none
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u/Squirrel_Grip23 Mar 24 '23
We get taught to be noisy when hiking to scare off snakes/spiders/drop bears but if snakes come towards you to be still. Was hiking and a mate leapt six foot high and forward as he nearly stepped on a red belly black snake. He scared the bejesus out of me and the snake. The snake goes away from him, which given he leapt forward is now back towards me. Head followed the training and said stand still, my heart said yell and scream and run. Head won. Snake brushed last my foot and I shat my pants.
They don’t go you unless they can’t get away or you unexpectedly step on one sunning itself, and even then they’re generally sleepy.
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u/sam_sneed1994 Mar 24 '23
It is funny. My best friend lives in Victoria and he thinks the wildlife in the area I'm in,the Pacific Northwest, is terrifying compared to Australia. We got wolves,bears , and mountain lions to name a few. All things that will hunt you. They have a ton of deadly creatures but not any that will actively stalk you. Sure a croc might in or near water but it ain't the same. I had always thought of Australia as the deadly place but he makes a good point.
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u/Miserable-Bite9661 Mar 24 '23
If we are comparing "things" that can kill you, I'd say the usa probably beats Australia, you know... because guns...
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u/BeneCow Mar 24 '23
And bears! I would much rather be bitten by a brown snake than a brown bear. At least with the former if you live you are fine, you get mauled by a bear and you are all kinds of fucked up.
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u/ScrappyToady Mar 24 '23
Yeah but you can usually hear or see the bear coming and vacate the area, lol. Snakes aren't known for being big and loud, which is why they're scary. I've almost stepped on well camouflaged rattlesnakes and that shit makes your heart stop.
Also, I initially read your comment as "and beans!" and wondered if we had a deadly wild bean I hadn't heard about here in the US that idiots were poisoning themselves with. Because that sounds like us.
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u/IReplyWithLebowski Mar 24 '23
US has more deaths from snakes than Australia, about 5 a year vs 2. Not per capita, but then you have bears and all the other things that can and do kill you there, spiders haven’t killed anyone in Australia in decades.
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u/ScrappyToady Mar 24 '23
Damn, I Googled it, and we (the US) get on average 6 spider bite deaths a year too. It's mostly the elderly and the very young, but still, holy shit! That's wild considering we only have like two really venomous endemic spiders (black widows and brown recluse).
Also, between 2000 and 2017 we had 48 fatal bear attacks. Maybe I should retract my previous statement about snakes being scarier, lol.
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u/IReplyWithLebowski Mar 24 '23
This is why Australians get a bit confused why everyone goes on about how deadly everything is here. If you want to see some crazy numbers check out India - 58,000 deaths a year just from snakes!
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u/anaccountthatis Mar 24 '23
Australia only has 2 venomous spiders (well, 3 now I guess): Sydney Funnel Web (legit deadly but exists in areas close to medical facilities, so people get treated before they die) and Redbacks (relative of the Black widow, and only really deadly to small children). Antivenin is available so the only deaths are in remote communities.
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u/Snowryder250 Mar 24 '23
Canada is bigger than both and has less population than California.
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u/boosta29 Mar 24 '23
Crazy eh... italy can fit inside ontario and has twice the population of canada ... and I just moved to a province whoes population is smaller than the city i grew up in, in ontario.
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u/WrenchesRUs Mar 24 '23
I just found out Halifax has nearly 4x the population of PEI, which I'm from. I'm blown away at that
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u/anewleaf1234 Mar 24 '23
The Chinese city I live in has around 80 percent the population of Canada.
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u/Professional_Row1630 Mar 24 '23
It’s also only 10% inhabitable
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u/AhmedHalat Mar 23 '23
Then there’s Canada
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u/Gwynnbleid95 Mar 24 '23
That's because only about 10% of Australia is habitable, the rest being inhospitable desert
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u/OkGuitar4160 Mar 23 '23
Don't forget that a huge chunk of China is unpopulated, too.
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u/No_Percentage7306 Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 24 '23
Aye. China ranks 87th in population density.
It's more sparsely populated than Germany which has loads of green space.
The US can sometimes feel like it's denser than it is because of the concrete sprawl without a break.
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u/Traumfahrer Mar 24 '23
less sparsely
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u/No_Percentage7306 Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 24 '23
Whoops. Thanks
Changed from less sparsely to more
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u/dgdio Mar 23 '23
40% of America lives near the coast. That's 10% of the land. If that were to be replicated uniformly throughout the US, that'd give us a population of 1.3 billion people. The gotcha is that 60% of chinese population is along the coast.
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u/Far_Confusion_2178 Mar 24 '23
Also, over 40% of our land is dedicated to cattle!
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u/A-Chntrd Mar 23 '23
Well, you could fit a lot more people on earth. That’s not the problem. Ressources are.
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u/nanonightmare Mar 24 '23
Fun fact all the world’s population can fit in 800 square foot apartments in the size of Texas. The rest of the world could be agricultural
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Mar 24 '23
Last I checked around 2014, If all the habitable land of the US were divided evenly amongst the population that would be about 40 acres per person.
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u/mehmed2theconqueror Mar 24 '23
I mean that's not small but damn that's not really big either
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u/shayen7 Mar 24 '23
Enough for everyone to grow their own food... well, except for the 50% of people that spawned in desert biomes and shit
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u/FeelinJipper Mar 24 '23
Theres plenty of resources. People just choose to hoard them
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u/anaccountthatis Mar 24 '23
Precisely. Any of these arguments based on the idea that overpopulation is about physically fitting people in is some toddler-level understanding of the world.
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u/wood1f Mar 23 '23
Canada is larger and only has about 35 million.
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u/thisoldmould Mar 23 '23
But 90% of the population lives within 250km of the US border.
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u/AdComprehensive7879 Mar 24 '23
If i read it correctly, the majority of canadian population lives more south than the us northern border (not including alaska).
Im sure there is a neater way to word this haha, but you get the point
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u/Domegozcue Mar 23 '23
Mostly uninhabitable snowy mountains north tho
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u/responsiblefornothin Mar 23 '23
I live north of most of Canada's population. It's not uninhabitable. You just need a jacket and boots
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u/bubdadigger Mar 23 '23
-India 1.269M sq miles, population 1.4B
-China 3.705M sq miles, population 1.4B
-USA 3.797M sq miles, population 331.9M
-Russia 6.602M sq miles, population 143.4M
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u/tykaboom Mar 24 '23
Germany has the land mass of montana... but has the population of like... cali and texas combined.
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u/Kudgocracy Mar 24 '23
Japan has about 50% of the US population in an area slightly smaller than California.
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u/tykaboom Mar 24 '23
Great britain. Rougly 70m people shoved in a land mass slightly smaller than kansas.
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u/Hilltopseeker Mar 23 '23
Edit: Alaska not pictured
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u/JudgeMoDollars999 Mar 23 '23
The russians took it back
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u/tango-tangerines Mar 23 '23
Because there’s no other country that Alaska could possibly be connected to lol
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u/JudgeMoDollars999 Mar 23 '23
We dont want it we have enough empty frozen land in Canada.
Plus they bought it from russia maybe they sold it back
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u/ZetzMemp Mar 24 '23
Why do you think I always pick china and India first when playing plague inc. I infect half the worlds population right there.
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u/Signal-Category2469 Mar 23 '23
The majority of western China is basically uninhabited too
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u/APoorBillionaire Mar 23 '23
Hmm, another slightly more crowded country comes to mind.....
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u/MrPumpkin21 Mar 23 '23
How many flyover states do they have?
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u/gpyrgpyra Mar 23 '23
Most of the country. Like the US
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u/MrPumpkin21 Mar 23 '23
Now you have me thinking. The majority of our population lives near the coasts. Look how much of a coastline they have. Holy shit how packed those cities must be compared to ours
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u/gpyrgpyra Mar 23 '23
There are a lot on the coasts but there are some big inland cities as well
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u/WingedLady Mar 24 '23
Okay that's nice. But how much space do you think it takes to grow food for all those people? Or the lumber for their houses? Or the cotton for their clothes? Or to mine the minerals for their computers?
Now compare that to how much arable land there is on earth.
And also account for how many waste products those people create and where those waste products go.
And don't forget that that includes waste gases going into the air.
And don't forget that those waste gases are behind climate change and their production almost exactly matches the rate of population growth over the last century (hockey stick curve).
It's not a matter of physically shoving as many people onto this poor orb as we can, it's a matter of making sure the people here are fed, housed, clean, medicated, and living in a world where that can continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.
We live for all intents and purposes in a closed system. There is only so much space and so many resources alloted to us on this planet. We cannot act like infinite growth is reasonable in a closed system.
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u/uniqeuusername Mar 24 '23
Overcrowding in terms of population and land isn't how many people can you pack into an area. It's how much farmland you have, how much water, how much suitable space for construction of residence. The things that support a population.
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u/tetoket Mar 24 '23
In this graph it is showing for the whole country but we look into the some place or specific city of the US we will found that they are also overcrowding is well
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u/seemorebunz Mar 23 '23
Just think of how high the rent would be if the USA population doubled.
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u/ShrimpFriedMyRice Mar 23 '23
Things don't happen overnight. There would be an increase in housing and new cities popping up all along the coasts and in the interior over time.
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u/SoyMurcielago Mar 23 '23
Are you serious? They can’t even build enough housing at an affordable price now…
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u/Montooth Mar 23 '23
They can't, but they CAN build plenty of tiny ass apartments that cost 1700/month for a studio, plus a deposit and first/last months rent. Also another 50/month if you have a small cat
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u/HoboMoo Mar 23 '23
It's crazy though. China is way easier to get around. Don't need cars and they have super good infrastructure. High-speed rails and subways in every city
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u/kdhfsfsshfhdueif Mar 24 '23
The one good thing about Japan and China is that they are very good in technology so even though crowd is soo much there you will find enough resources over there.
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u/HouseDowntown8602 Mar 23 '23
Try this with Canada (40mil almost) - odd to say “only” 320m !! that’s huge!
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u/QuarterInchSocket Mar 23 '23
Yep. And we’re still spreading outwards while they’re now spreading upwards.
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u/999-XO Mar 23 '23
Canada got them beat 🤣
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u/550130179 Mar 24 '23
If you are saying that they can beat them by their own country people then no
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u/tryhard1981 Mar 23 '23
As with everywhere, it depends on where you are. If you are out in the country, sure there's tons of space and a sparse amount of people. But if you live in a major city (New York, L.A., Houston, Chicago, etc), it's a clusterfuck of overcrowding.
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u/RenegadeBB Mar 24 '23
Not to mention, IIRC the majority of the Chinese population are towards the east, especially the eastern coast.
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u/Camburglar13 Mar 24 '23
Canada is the second biggest country and had 38 million. Japan has 125 million.
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u/EpikNyan Mar 24 '23
and then remember that both countries have large swathes of unused or unusable land
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u/Scientific_Redditor Mar 24 '23
Remember that a lot of China is covered with Himalayas, in which not many people live. Most of the population lives in the metropolies along the east coast if I remember correctly.
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u/jesus_krist81 Mar 24 '23
Now do Australia. We have nearly the same size land with only 26 million people Nice and spacious.
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u/AlexRyang Mar 24 '23
Something to consider though: the largest 10 cities (per the 2020 census) in the People’s Republic of China have a combined population of 87,333,490 people. The largest 10 cities (per the 2020 census) in the United States of America have a combined population of 26,105,017.
China’s urban areas are far more populated than the US.
New York City, the United States largest city, population wise, would be the 6th largest city in China. Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States, would be the 18th largest city in China. Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, would be the 32nd largest city in China.
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u/unrulyropmba Mar 24 '23
There's room for 2b in the USA alone. China has countryside and whole fake cities with empty apartment blocks. The whole overpopulation trope is played out. Now we should fear demographic decline. Next week it's back to a pandemic. Then I think we've got a tentative panic over microplastics and loss of biodiversity, only if we can't get nuclear apocalypse booked though!
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u/thesixfingerman Mar 24 '23
More impressive when you remember that more than half of their population live on the coast, and the US has tow coasts.
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u/stoneuf Mar 24 '23
My first thought to this is 'two wrongs don't make a right'. Just because the US has roughly a third of the population density of China doesn't mean the US isn't overpopulated. We have lots of open space, but it can be argued that even what we do have isn't enough, and that we've occupied too much of the land or modified it to the point where it can't do the job of equalizing the climate that it could in a more natural state. I'm not a major tree-hugger or anything, and I do see how the larger the population, the more conveniences can be had for all, but I also don't possess speciesist egotism to the same degree that many of my fellow humans have, so I can't help but get the sense that humanity has gone far past the tipping point of over-populating the planet to the detriment of the other occupants of this world and to ourselves in the long run.
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u/TheCapableFox Mar 24 '23
And that overlay map doesn’t even include US states Alaska/Hawaii on it. I didn’t realize the US was pretty much the same size as China.. wow.
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u/8Will8 Mar 24 '23
“Over 1 billion”. That “over” is an extra 400 million mate. I think typing “.4” is worth the effort.
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u/fromaroundhere Mar 24 '23
Then when you realize:
China's population density: 150 per square kilometer
Netherlands' population density: 500 per square kilometer
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u/sixteen89 Mar 24 '23
Now realize that almost the entire west side is unlivable due to it being a fucking mountain
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u/TheJoshGriffith Mar 24 '23
Someone has probably already shared it, but there's a tool that makes this stuff kinda easy:
https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTcyNzE2NDE.MzA1MzY2Nw*MzYwMDAwMDA(MA~!CN*MTE0NzI3NjY.MTk2NzM2MDI)Mw~!US*MTAxOTQ0NjM.MTY0NjYzMjQMw~!US*MTAxOTQ0NjM.MTY0NjYzMjQ))NA
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u/Hilltopseeker Mar 24 '23
Edit: This diagram shows the size difference between China and US. (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).
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u/BigMax Mar 24 '23
There is a LOT of nothing in the US, especially in the middle.
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u/AdComprehensive7879 Mar 24 '23
You dont think thats not the case with china?? Id argue it’s eve worse there
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Mar 23 '23
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u/ololoxer Mar 24 '23
The man difference in China and India is that China is making best of the population by making goods for all over world while India is still lacking behind in this thing.
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