95% of population lives on 10% of land

Steve Hawley, Jan 07, 09.

A new global map released by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre reveals that 95% of the world’s population lives on 10% of the land, according to an article in ScienceDaily. The article notes that “in the absence of agreement on the meaning of ‘urbanisation,’ the European Commission and the World Bank are proposing a new definition based on a unique mapping of ‘Accessibility’ called the Agglomeration Index” - in other words, travel time. The 12-month study found that although over half the global population now lives in cities and a similar proportion lives within one hour of a major city, only 10% of the world’s land can be considered remote (more than 48 hours from a city of 50,000 or more). The world’s population is increasingly urban, but remote ecosystems are simultaneously being threatened.

The map can be viewed online through the Joint Research Centre website.