Where the Fewest People Live on Earth — and Why These Places Remain Almost Empty

There are still territories on Earth where you won't encounter a single person for hundreds of kilometers. Roughly 15% of the planet's land surface is effectively uninhabited, and the reasons have been the same for thousands of years: too hot, too cold, or too high.

The global average population density is 58 people per square kilometer. But that's a meaningless average: 70% of humanity lives on just 11% of the land, packed into a narrow band along coastlines and river valleys. The rest of the space is divided among deserts, glaciers, mountain plateaus, and tundra.

Mongolia: Two People Per Square Kilometer

The absolute leader in low population density among sovereign nations is Mongolia: roughly 2 people per square kilometer. In area, the country is larger than France, Germany, and Spain combined, yet it's home to just 3.4 million people — fewer than a single district of Moscow.

The reasons are a harsh continental climate and the terrain. Winter temperatures in the steppe plunge to –40°C, summers are short and scorching. A third of the territory is occupied by the Gobi Desert, where rain falls only a handful of times a year. There are no major rivers, the soil is poor, and farming is virtually impossible.

Around 30% of Mongolians still lead a nomadic lifestyle, moving with their yurts to follow their livestock. For every resident of the country, there are roughly 17 head of cattle — cows, horses, sheep, goats, and camels.

Greenland's Ice-Covered Void

Technically, Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, but by size it's the largest island on the planet: 2.17 million square kilometers. Its population is about 56,000. Density: 0.03 people per square kilometer — one of the lowest figures in the world.

The reason is obvious: 80% of the island is covered by an ice sheet up to three kilometers thick. Habitable land exists only along a narrow coastal strip, and nearly the entire population is concentrated on the southwestern coast. The capital, Nuuk, is a city of about 19,000 — the largest on the island. There are no roads between settlements — only air travel, boats, and dog sleds.

Nine Million Square Kilometers of Nothing: The Sahara

The Sahara covers roughly 9 million square kilometers — comparable to the entire area of the United States. Population density is under 1 person per square kilometer, and in the interior it's effectively zero.

Sand surface temperatures during the day reach +70°C, and precipitation in the central regions falls below 25 mm per year — a hundred times less than Moscow.

People live in oases, along the only river — the Nile — and on the coast. Everything else is space where life is possible only in transit.

The Sahara spans the territories of 11 countries — Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and others. That's precisely why several African nations rank among the least populated: the climate leaves no choice.

Australia's Empty Heart

Australia is the most sparsely populated inhabited continent: 2.7 people per square kilometer on average. But 90% of the population lives on the coast, while the central part of the continent — the Outback — is practically empty.

There are no permanently flowing rivers, summer temperatures soar past +45°C, and the nearest town can be several hundred kilometers away.

Some Outback cattle stations are comparable in area to small European countries, and until recently, farmers' children attended school by radio — the nearest classroom was simply too far.

The Tibetan Plateau: Too High to Settle

Tibet is the largest high-altitude plateau on the planet, with an average elevation of roughly 4,500 meters. At that height, oxygen pressure is about 60% of sea-level values. Agriculture is only possible in the valleys, and most of the plateau is a cold, rocky wasteland.

Population density in China's Tibet Autonomous Region is about 3 people per square kilometer. Beyond Lhasa and a handful of valley towns, there are hundreds of kilometers with not a single dwelling. Nomadic herders move across the plateau with their yaks, but even they avoid the highest and most waterless stretches.

Canada's Frozen North

The territory of Nunavut in northern Canada is the country's largest administrative unit: 1.9 million square kilometers.

Population: approximately 40,000. Density: 0.02 people per square kilometer — one of the lowest on Earth.

Winter temperatures drop to –50°C, and the polar night lasts several months. There are no roads between communities — only planes. Groceries are flown in by air, and store prices run several times higher than in southern Canada. Despite all of this, the Inuit have lived here for thousands of years — and they have no intention of leaving.

Why These Places Are Still Empty

Twenty-first-century technology makes it possible to live virtually anywhere — on an orbital station, on the ocean floor, at an Antarctic research base. But mass settlement requires something else entirely: water, usable soil, and a tolerable climate. None of the territories listed above offer that combination.

Global warming is redrawing the map, but not in the way you might think. Greenland is losing ice, but the exposed bedrock is unfit for agriculture. The Sahara is expanding, not shrinking. Tibet is losing the glaciers that feed rivers sustaining billions of people downstream.

The empty places of the planet remain empty not because no one has found them, but because the conditions for life there haven't changed in thousands of years — and show no signs of changing anytime soon.