Category: Asia

The interior of continental Southeast Asia (such as the Mekong region) and the large islands (such as Sumatra, Borneo), which was formerly completely covered with tropical rainforests, is increasingly being developed and populated. The population density is increasing in these areas. Within Southeast Asia, the agricultural favored area of ​​Java emerges with the highest population densities; The difference to the other islands in Indonesia is particularly striking.

The concentration of large metropolises is striking in South and East Asia. In the ranking of the world’s largest agglomerations, many of the top places are occupied by metropolitan regions in Asia. In first place is Tokyo, followed by megacities like Delhi, Shanghai, Mumbai, Dhaka, Jakarta, Seoul, Calcutta, Manila and others. In the Perfluent Delta around Guangzhou and Hong Kong, a new urban agglomeration is emerging that, with its almost 60 million residents, could compete with Tokyo for first place as the largest urban agglomeration in the world.

As a comparison with the population figures from 1970 shows, all the cities mentioned – and many others in the region – have increased their population figures many times over in just a few decades. The most important reason for this development is the urban-rural divide characteristic of many developing and emerging countries, which has greatly accelerated the urbanization process in this part of Asia. In China, for example, less than 30 percent of the population lived in cities in 1980; today it is well over 50 percent. For more information about the continent of Asia, please check politicsezine.com.