Singapore Densely Populated ? Actually we are way down the list in the world

         Recently I visited the Singapore Urban Gallery at the former URA Building, along Maxwell Road. It shows a helicopter view in 3D of the changes in the landscape of Singapore and how far we have come as a country and city these past 52 years. The urban landscape has changed from the post 2nd World War when all we had were kampungs (rural villages with attap houses and huts, no running water and no sewage system at all), poor infrastructure and third world standard of living. 

        My takeaway was that Singapore has expanded in area from 650 square kilometers during the '70s to 710 square kilometres as an island. I all along thought that my city state was densley populated per square kilometre. I was totally wrong on that count. The latest census puts Singapore's population (citizenry, residents and temporary workers) at 5,400,000 or 5.4 million. Divide that by 710 square kilometres and you get 7,603 persons roughly per square kilometre. 

        I did a check on Wikipedia, and much to my surprise, as a city, Singapore does not even come in the top 50 cities in terms of density if you take into account the municipalities or districts within certain cities. See below for some examples. Guttenberg is just outside New York City, as is Bnej Brak and Pateros The top 20 cities and municipalities in terms of density are :

  1. Manila   :   41,515 per km2

  2. Pateros :   30,546 per km2   (municipality of Philippines)

  3. Mumbai :  28,508 per km2

  4. Dhaka   :  27,916 per km2

 .6 Bnei Brak :27,299 per km2  (Israel)

 .7 Levallois

     Perret      : 26,432 per km2  (France)

 .15 Kolkata  : 24,252 per km2  (India).

 .16 St Josse  

       ten Noode : 24, 165 per km2 (Belgium)

 .20 Guttenberg :22,645 per km2 (USA)

      So having 7,306 persons per km2 is way down the list of crowded cities. Its a paradigm shift to me having thought of us as an overcrowded city with masses of people jostling for personal space. 

      In another list of actual cities, Singapore (category city state) makes it only as the 25th most densely populated city in the list of 91 cities.

     Its the 48 th largest city by population worldwide, and it is  the 25th most densely populated. 

    In its proper perspective, if you consider anywhere in Singapore, you have a football pitch area (its 106 m x 75 m approximately or 75% of 100 x 100 m), you would theroretically see about 58 persons.  So, thats in theory about slightly more than 2 times the number of football players plus referee plus linesmen.

    In reality actually, this is just the average density, many places are far more crowded (like in MRT trains during peak periods, F1 walkabouts in Marina Square and in movie theaters). Outside in the tropical forests of MacRitchie Catchment Area it goes down to perhaps 1 person or less per 100 m2.