Which countries have the highest population density?

Full country ranking

Value: people per km² of land. The table is shown in its published rank order. Rank always refers to the published highest-first order; exact source ties share a rank.

What the data means

6 covered countries have at least 1,000 residents per square kilometre of land. Compact states can lead a national density table even when larger countries contain denser cities. This indicator uses land area, so it should not be compared directly with a measure using total surface area.

Methodology, source and licence

One common observation year (2024) across all entries. Starting at 2024, choose the newest common year with at least 10 existing country guides and at least 70% of world population represented. Regional aggregates and places without an existing country guide or same-year population are excluded; missing observations are never estimated. Rates, percentages and values already expressed per person are not divided by population again. Exact source ties share a rank; country names break ties in display order. The 2026 label is the publication edition, not the observation year.

Source definition: Population density is midyear population divided by land area in square kilometers. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

Original providers: FAO population estimates, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); World Bank population estimates, World Bank (WB), publisher: World Bank (WB)

Source: World Bank — World Development Indicators — EN.POP.DNST. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-18. GooferPlaces selected eligible countries, sorted observations, rounded display values and, where stated, calculated population-normalised values. The source organisations do not endorse these rankings.

Download the observations and methodology (JSON). The dated source snapshot is retained as data/rankings/world-bank-wdi/2026-10-18.json. The country universe comprises the 197 existing country guides; territories without a guide and regional aggregates are excluded. Population coverage uses the World Bank world aggregate for the observation year, including places not listed in the table.

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