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October 06, 2005
Populations versus Popular Nations
Who hasn't looked at a map of the world upside down (South at the top) and been doubly fascinated and disoriented by the shape of our reality? The other day, I came across a recent list of the largest 50 countries ranked by population. The top five offered no real suprises: in order China, India, United States, Indonesia with Brazil edging out Russia as the fifth. Rounding out the next were Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan and Nigeria.
I was amazed that Vietnam, with a population of 86 million people, weighs in at number 14 among the largest nations in the world (Mexico, Germany and the Philippines rank 11-13). Germany and Nigeria are respectively the sole European and African nations larger than Vietnam. Vietnam is larger by population than France, Egypt, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Italy, South Korea, Spain and Poland. Iraq, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Canada, Peru and South Africa do not figure in the top 30 (yet are among the top 50 with Ghana occupying the last slot. Australia misses the cut at number 51 with a 2002 census of 19,546,000 people.
More Information
BBC. India Population to Be Biggest
UN. The United Nations Population Information Network
Website. The Upside Down Map Page
Posted by rst at October 6, 2005 07:48 PM
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