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Ocean Population Density

The other day I was talking with a friend about population density and the number of people who live on the ocean. So I did some research on the numbers, and here are the results.

USA

Total Area = 9,833,520 km² (3,796,742 square miles)

Population = 331,893,745 (2021 estimate)

Population Density = 33.6/km² (87/square mile)

All Land on Earth, including deserts and glaciers

Total Area = 148,326,000 km² (57,268,900 square miles)

Population = 7,795,000,000

Population Density = 52.6/km²

Oceans

Total Area = 361,900,000 km²

Population = 100,000* estimated

Population Density = 0.00028/km² or 1 person per 4000 square kilometers.

Comparison

To relate that density to the USA, it's the same as if the entire USA had a population of 2,500 people.

If you related that to the entire planet, it's like the Earth's population was 41,500 people.

 

* = There are no hard statistics for how many people live on the oceans. There is estimated to be 20-30,000 cruising boats in the world. If we average 3 people per boat, that gives us 60-90,000 people. As such, this is a generous estimate. But even if my numbers are off by a factor of 10, if there's actually 1 million people living on the oceans, it would still be 1 person per 400 km².