90 percent of the world population lives in 10 percent of its total land area, whereas the remaining 10 percent resides in the 90 percent of its land area. Support the statement with examples.

The above statement is true. There are some places in the world which are perfect for habitation because of its geographic, economic and socio-cultural conditions. So these places attract a lot of people from all over the world who look to fulfil their daily amenities and live comfortably. So these portions are densely populated i.e. 90 percent of the world population lives in these type of areas which is around 10 percent of the total land area of the world. The remaining 10 percent population mainly tribal areas and illiterate people live in the rest of the land away from modern civilisation.

Hence the factors which affect the density of population are as follows:-

• Availability of water- People like to live in a good place like a river basin which has adequate water facilities. Water is used for drinking, washing clothes and utensils, bathing and also for cattle, industries and navigation.

• Landforms - They also prefer to live on plains and gentle slopes rather than hills where the market, industries and transport facilities are quite handy. It is also favourable for crop production and building of roads and industries. So the Ganga plains are densely populated.

• Climate- They prefer to live in a comfortable climate like the Mediterranean area, which has a comfortable climate throughout the year. Areas having harsh climate like snowfall, heavy rainfall, extreme heat have sparse population.

• Minerals- Areas which have a good deposit of minerals are a good location for industries, and therefore it attracts more skilled and semi-skilled people for employment and thus make it densely populated. For example the Katanga Zambia belt in Africa.

• Urbanisation- The cities which offer better facilities for lifestyle and better employment attract number of people. They offer better medical treatment, better education and modern means of transport, communication and modern technologies which make lives easy. Megacities attract many rural citizens every year.

• Industrialization- Industrial belts provide lots of job opportunities and attract a large number of people. These include industrial workers, shopkeepers, bank employees, transport operator, doctor, teachers and other professions. These make the areas densely populated. For example the Kobe-Osaka region of Japan is densely populated due to presence of large number of industries.