What is population density and how can it be calculated?

• A. The total population of a country
• B. The amount of land area used for housing
• C. The average number of people per household
• D. Number of people per unit area; calculation = population divided by area

Answer: (D)

Population density is about how crowded a place is by counting how many people live in a given area. The calculation is straightforward: take the total population and divide it by the land area, giving the number of people per unit area (usually per square kilometer or per square mile). For example, if a country has 50 million people and covers 500,000 square kilometers, the density is 50,000,000 ÷ 500,000 = 100 people per square kilometer. The other options describe either the total number of people, the land area used for housing, or average household size, none of which measure how many people occupy a given area.