When thinking about China's population (about 1.3 billion), it can be hard to comprehend how many people that actually is. This map is so cool because it puts the population of China in perspective when compared to other countries.
Here's more from the Strange Maps blog post:
Here, for easy reference, is a list in descending order of magnitude of those Chinese territories (their population in brackets) followed by the foreign country they compare to.
- Guangdong (113 million) Germany plus Uganda (3)
- Henan (99 million) Mexico
- Shandong (92 million) Philippines
- Sichuan (87 million) Vietnam
- Jiangsu (75 million) Egypt
- Hebei (68 million) Iran
- Hunan (67 million) France
- Anhui (65 million) Thailand
- Hubei (60 million) U.K.
- Guangxi (49 million) Burma/Myanmar
- Zhejiang (47 million) South Africa
- Yunnan (44 million) Colombia
- Jiangxi (43 million) Tanzania
- Liaoning (42 million) Argentina
- Guizhou (39 million) Sudan
- Heilongjiang (38 million) Poland
- Shaanxi (37 million) Kenya
- Fujian (35 million) Algeria
- Shanxi (33 million) Canada
- Chongqing (31 million) Morocco
- Jilin (27 million) Afghanistan
- Gansu (26 million) Saudi Arabia
- Inner Mongolia (24 million) North Korea
- Taiwan (23 million) Yemen
- Xinjiang (20 million) Madagascar
- Shanghai (18 million) Cameroon
- Beijing (16 million) Angola
- Tianjin (12 million) Cuba
- Hainan (8 million) Austria
- Hong Kong (7 million) El Salvador
- Ningxia (6 million) Sierra Leone
- Qinghai (5 million) Slovakia
- Tibet (3 million) Jamaica
- Macau (0,5 million) Cape Verde
Some obvious conclusions (from a non-expert, non-Chinese point of view):
- Most of China’s main administrative subdivisions are literally unheard-of in the rest of the world, save for some obvious exceptions like Tibet, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
- The names of some provinces sound especially indistinguishable (or at least are rather indistinct to western ears): Hebei and Hubei; Shanxi and neighbouring Shaanxi; not to mention Jiangxi and Guangxi; or Hainan, Hunan and Henan.
- The well-known pattern of heavy population density on the coast and lesser density inland belies the fact that even in the most far-flung provinces, the populations are not exactly tiny (Xinjiang: 20 million, Inner Mongolia: 24 million), Heilongjiang: 38 million, Yunnan: 44 million), except in Qinghai (5 million) and Tibet (3 million).
This map was sent in by Isaac Lewis, who was “inspired by the map that did something similar for US states and international GDPs (here and here) in order to “get a perspective on just how many people 1.3 billion actually is.”
“Mostly the provinces and their labels are very close in population,” Mr Lewis explains. “The largest difference is between Henan province (98.7 million) and Mexico (106.7 million). Other than that, they’re mostly within 1 or 2 million of each other.”
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