# Most Densely Populated Places On The Planet

An episode of [Be Amazed](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1687637469), 19 Jun 2026, 34 min.

Audio: https://audio4.redcircle.com/episodes/2f701036-6c88-4bcd-abe8-a3fa5fca026c/stream.mp3

In 1804, the world population hit 1 billion for the first time ever. And think about how fast it grew from there: it took 123 years to add the second billion, then just 33 years for the third — and the jump from 7 to 8 billion took only 12 years. The curve isn’t just rising, it’s accelerating — and all those people have to live somewhere. So join me today as we explore some of the most densely populated places in the world right now, and what it’s like to live there! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Transcript

[0:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 1804, the World Population hit 1 billion for the first time ever, and think about how fast it grew from there.
[0:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It took 123 years to add the second billion and just 33 years for the third.
[0:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and had jumped from 7 to 8 billion to only 12 years.
[0:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The curve isn't just rising, it's accelerating, and all those people have to live somewhere.
[0:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So, join me today as we explore some of the most densely populated places in the world right now and what it's like to live there.
[0:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If I had to pick a favorite car, I'd probably go with the classic Rolls Royce.
[0:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If I wanted to get my hands on one, I'd have to have to have to Britain, right?
[0:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Wrong.
[0:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The city with the most Rolls Royce's purpose and is actually Hong Kong.
[1:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's no surprise there, so many of these luxurious rides around, while Hong Kong may be incredibly dense, it's also incredibly rich, home to 96 billionaires, putting it in second place on the list of cities with the most billionaires.
[1:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 2023, the population hits 7.5 million, and is expected to reach 8.5 million by 2041, with population density more than 17,000 people in a single square mile.
[1:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For perspective, if you were to lay them out in a square grid, there would only be 45 feet between each person.
[1:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Ultimately, Hong Kong stands as one of the most urbanized places globally with every single resident living in a city environment.
[1:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now, this clamoring for space must mean housing competition is pretty fierce, right?
[1:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You betcha!
[2:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hong Kong has earned its spot as one of the most expensive housing markets on the planet outpricing even sole type A and Bangkok.
[2:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: According to a 2017 survey, the median home costs a staggering 18 times the median annual income, and that's just the average.
[2:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That means someone making the average salary of around $55,000 a year needs to stash away $990,000 just to afford a home.
[2:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For the super rich, this is Beatuts.
[2:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Unless fortunate, like the elderly, those suffering from addiction and the mentally ill are consigned to living in coffin houses.
[2:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And the name earns every syllable.
[2:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The picture of wire mesh cage just barely 3 feet wide and 6 feet long, just large enough to lie flat in.
[2:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Some are stacked three to your tie inside what you used to be a living room, each one no bigger than a large drawer.
[3:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The acupunctum can not sit upright without hitting the bunk above.
[3:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: These are tiny apartments often measuring just three feet by six feet, that's smaller than a Hong Kong prison cell.
[3:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And if you can believe it, smaller than a standard US parking space.
[3:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even if you try to escape Hong Kong, don't think you'll flee the crowds.
[3:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Picture 50 Leans of Traffic, wider than most airport runways, reduced to a total standstill.
[3:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Cars and lures packed so tightly the tarmac is invisible beneath them.
[3:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The kind of gridlock where you genuinely be faster on foot.
[3:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's the scene on the 50 Lane Beijing Hong Kong Macau Expressway.
[3:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That was back in 2015 during Golden Week, a Chinese national holiday, so roads are a little busier than usual, and what then I'm never complaining about my rush hour ever again.
[3:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And Hong Kong isn't the only Chinese city where space is at a surreal premium.
[4:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Just across the border, Shenzhen has pulled up one of the most staggering urban transformations in history.
[4:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Did you know that the Chinese mega city of Shenzhen once looked almost unrecognizable from what it is today?
[4:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Think flat fishing villages, rice paddies, and open farmland along the Pearl River Estuary, with a population of just 58,000 people.
[4:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's a lot of development.
[4:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Must have taken 50, maybe 100 years of development to build all that up, right?
[4:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Try just 35 years.
[4:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Back in 1980, Shinsan had a population of 58,000.
[4:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Today, it's home to 17.56 million people.
[4:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Cramed together at 23,000 per square mile, making it the most crowded city in all of China.
[4:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And China is an exactly empty being home to over 1.4 billion people.
[5:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Some areas are so overpopulated schools have to accommodate mass testing by having up to 1,700 pupils all take the test together on their playgrounds.
[5:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There's just not enough space anywhere else.
[5:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now what exactly drew so many people to Shenzhen?
[5:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It all goes back to May of 1980 right after the passing of Communist leader Chairman Mao.
[5:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Stepping into the leadership role was Ding Xiaoping, a reformist who tweaked Mao's hardcore policies shaping China into the economic powerhouse we now know.
[5:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 1980, shopping declared Shenzhen the world's first special economic zone, where communist laws were loosened and foreign investments in private businesses well-cooked.
[5:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Change was instant.
[5:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Construction sites sprouted, offices and factories shut up, rural communities were eaten up as peasants were forced to leave their homes to make way for the city.
[6:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: These days, Shenzhen is a melting pot of migrants who come to work in factories and do various other jobs, though many experienced group-ling conditions low wages and, next to no labor protections.
[6:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And when it comes to crowds, there's no respite.
[6:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To give you a sense of the overcrowding, imagine Jalmisha Beach.
[6:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: A stretch of sand so packed and simmered that the ground disappears completely beneath the crowd.
[6:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The burlis press against umbrella from that tree line to the water and the shoreline is a solid wall of people shoulder to shoulder.
[6:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In summer it gets so crowded it has a dedicated booking system citizens used to reserve a time slot to use the beach.
[6:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Shins and sits within the Pearl River Delta alongside eight other cities like Gong-Zao and Foshan.
[6:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Big plans are on the horizon with Chinese Central Planner's Hamming to merge these cities into one super connected Megalopolis by 2030.
[7:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's like a tale of two cities who are, in this case, eight.
[7:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Syrian city of Damascus is one of the world's most densely populated places with over 58,000 people per square mile, more than Shenzhen and Hong Kong combined.
[7:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Damascus is also one of the oldest continually inhabited cities globally being founded in the third millennium BCE.
[7:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That makes it about as old as the pyramids.
[7:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now, when I say Syria, what probably comes to mind is the terrible civil war that began in the 2010s.
[7:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As a result, nearly a million domestic migrants from other parts of Syria fled to the capital, which explains its high population density.
[7:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 2024, 1,000 Palestinian refugees came to Yarmuk camp, despite the largely destroyed public infrastructure.
[7:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Due to being in the middle of a civil war, Damascus doesn't fare too well on the global livability ranking.
[8:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 2022, it was listed as the least livable city on Earth, scoring poorly on factors such as stability, healthcare infrastructure, and education.
[8:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: like they don't have it bad enough already.
[8:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This has come at a cost to its population.
[8:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 2010, Damascus fertility rates were set to fall from around two and a half children per woman to 1.4 children by 2025.
[8:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Young people are delaying marriage as someone to finish their studies to secure a better life while others don't set up to cover traditional marriage costs.
[8:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Civil War doesn't help either, so perhaps Damascus won't be on this list much longer.
[8:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And spite of the turmoil or ordinary Damascus citizens carry on with life as best as they can.
[8:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Take the Damascus Gate, for instance, it's the world's largest restaurant.
[8:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It has over 6,000 seats and covers around 214,000 square feet.
[9:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's three times as big as the White House.
[9:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Probably has a more varied menu too.
[9:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From one of the oldest cities on Earth to one of its most fragile, a chain of islands so low-lying that the ground its densest city stands on may not exist by the end of this century.
[9:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Ah, the Maldives, the classic Tropical Paradise, a hub of luxurious resorts and beautiful beaches.
[9:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But did you know that this idyllic haven could soon be underwater?
[9:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The chain of islands that can pose the Maldives are under threat from rising sea levels brought about by climate change.
[9:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Take more leg, not only the most populated island in the Maldives, but also the fifth most densely populated island globally.
[9:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Marlaze population of 252,000 people spread over the 3.2 square mile island means on average 59,000 people are squeezed into a single square mile.
[9:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That would be like 163 soccer players crowded onto a single field at once.
[10:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Marla is a bustling hub of trade and tourism connecting Sri Lanka and India through trade routes.
[10:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The population has searched due to job opportunities better health care, education, and improved infrastructure, but with trade comes trash.
[10:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Every Marla tourist uses 132 gallons of water and produces around 8 pounds of waste a day.
[10:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Back in 1992 in Art of Fish,
[10:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The La Fouchi was created to help solve my laser-refused problem.
[10:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: with more than 363 tons being dumped on this stinky aisle daily.
[10:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Unfortunately, the future of Marley isn't looking too bright.
[10:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Maldives boasts the lowest elevation of any country worldwide, 80% of its land sits less than 3.5 feet above sea level.
[10:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As these levels rise, the islands will become more cramped with people whose homes have been washed away.
[11:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Trash Island will also have progressively less room for storage, and to alleviate the population of Marlai and its ongoing coastal erosion, the government created Hulu Marlai, a brand new island in 1997.
[11:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, this too has now been developed to the point where it's looking more like Marlai 2.0.
[11:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Maybe they need another island.
[11:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Wait, I think I'm starting to see a pattern here.
[11:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From a sinking island in the Indian Ocean, let's head north to the Bangladeshi capital, a city growing so fast that its roads are becoming physically impossible to use.
[11:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There's nothing like driving along, tunes blaring wind in my hair, well, where my hair used to be, but if you're in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, your driving experience will be endless pleasant, as the traffic here is the fifth worst in the world.
[11:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Drivers have to battle with over 1.8 million vehicles on a leverant that roads with a car's average speed being just 4.3 miles per hour.
[12:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This is expected to jump to a snail's pace of 2.4 miles per hour by 2035, meaning it'll be quicker to walk than drive.
[12:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: that worse traffic jam in L.A. or even move by has nothing on DACA.
[12:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And if you thought you'd take a quiet trip on the train, you'd have got another thing going.
[12:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Every day around 8,000 to 10,000 people clamber on to any available train.
[12:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and I literally mean clamber with all available space used, even the roof.
[12:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you could witness the train systems here, you barely believe it.
[12:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Passengers hanging from open doorways pressed 3D against windows and dozens more, sitting on their carriage roof tops, holding on as the train moves.
[12:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Every surface occupied, inside, and out.
[12:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 2023, DACA's population was 23.2 million, a whopping 13.6% of the entire country's populace, which adds up to a population density of more than 60,000 people per square mile.
[13:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and the city's growing.
[13:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Each year 400,000 people stream into the capital, many new residents are lured by better paid work and some even playing climate-caused disasters, creating a scarily unsustainable amount of growth.
[13:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On only enough, there's been a recent trend of these low-income megacities.
[13:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Back in the 1960s, country's earning less than $1,000 per person annually had a low-urbanization rate of less than 10%.
[13:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Fast forward to 2011, and the urbanization rate in similarly developed countries rocketed up to 47%.
[13:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This boom has led to megacities like Ducca that struggle with lackluckster infrastructure
[13:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Speaking of clones, if you thought the DACA traffic was bad, try being a sewer cleaner.
[14:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The user's workers weighed neck, deep, and waste unblocking trains all over the city, and were declared by the internet to have the world's worst job in 2018.
[14:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Wow, I'm getting the next train out of here.
[14:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Oh yeah.
[14:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From the rivers of the Bangladesh, let's cross the Atlantic to a Caribbean capital that has been hit by everything imaginable.
[14:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and keeps getting back up.
[14:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Caribbean Country of Haiti has a current population somewhere around 11.45 million.
[14:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And many of those citizens have had a rough time lately.
[14:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Though when I say lately, I mean for the last 250 years.
[14:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This country has been hit by invasions on payable debts, natural disasters and political instability.
[14:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And nowhere is the nation's turbulent history more evident than in its capital, Port-Alporens.
[14:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 2022, its population was estimated to be 1.2 million, meaning some 71,000 people are squeezed into every square mile.
[15:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's more than two and a half times the population density of even New York City.
[15:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Rewinding the January 2010 a monstrous 7.0 earthquake-leveled much-a-portal prints, costing the lives of over 200,000 people.
[15:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Homes were shattered and survivors found themselves making do an overcrowded slums.
[15:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On July 7, 2021, Haiti's President Jovena Moist was assassinated amid protests over rising fuel prices.
[15:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Since January 2023, the country has lacked a single democratically elected government official, and it's unclear when the next presidential election will be held.
[15:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As a result, around 150 dangerous gangs control more than 60% of the capital.
[15:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In Citesale, the most deprived and densely populated commune within, gangs rule the streets.
[15:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: A central resources like food and health services are scarce thanks to the gang's blocking CTA Solays, entrances.
[16:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Uncannitarian conditions have worsened leading to outbreaks of infectious diseases like cholera.
[16:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Throughout these struggles people have taken to the streets demanding action against gangs and for better security.
[16:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even amid the devastation, there are glimpses of resilience, charities setting up and rubble strewn courtyards, children dancing in alleyways to crack from the 2010 earthquake, football games played between mouths of debris,
[16:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Small moments of ordinary childhood and deeply extraordinary circumstances.
[16:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Are the youth of Portoff Prince joining gangs might seem like the only path, but they're still home.
[16:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Charities and organizations are stepping in to provide a semblance of normal city young people in Portoff Prince, offering games, dances, and a taste of childhood.
[16:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: even when life is anything but simple.
[16:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: With a country-wide population of 11.45 million though, they have their work cut out for them.
[17:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From the resilience of Portofference, let's cross to the Middle East to a city that is densely packed by choice, built around a way of life that deliberately keeps the outside world at arms length.
[17:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you head over to Israel, get ready to see museums galore.
[17:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Israel holds the record for the most museums per capita out of any country.
[17:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's not the only thing it's got a lot of, though.
[17:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There are scores of people, too.
[17:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Israel has a population of 9.3 million, and it's predicted that by 2065, that number will be as high as 20 million, making it the most crowded country in the OECD.
[17:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The organization for economic cooperation and development.
[17:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To us, not cheap political types, that's some 38 countries that make up the Western world.
[17:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: No ware is Israel more populated than in the city of Boone Brock.
[17:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 2022, the population density was listed as 78,000 per square mile, about 95% of the community are hergedy.
[18:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: which means they're ultra-orthodox Jews.
[18:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If there's one thing Israelis can be proud of, it's that they're one of the most fertile countries in the West.
[18:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On average, her ready parents have just under seven children.
[18:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I know what you're thinking.
[18:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: How do you have just under seven children?
[18:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Do people have have children?
[18:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: No, that's just how average is work.
[18:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Anyway, like a lot of places I've mentioned so far, but ain't bright, struggles with poverty, and as one of the poor cities in the country.
[18:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In 2017, 47% of employed residents were making minimum wage or even less.
[18:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Many rely on donations from fellow heredic communities over in New York.
[18:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: During the pandemic, the infection rates in ultra-orthodox parts of Israel were four to eight times higher than anywhere else in the country, hardly due to overcrowding and large families.
[19:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even with these challenges, 98% of locals claim to lead a pretty satisfactory life, only 8% consider themselves poor, and less than 10% go hungry because they don't have enough money.
[19:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What how does this work?
[19:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, her eddy folks live in tight-knit communities that function in their own little close economy.
[19:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now that's what you call community spirit.
[19:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From the ultra-orthodox streets of Israel to the other side of the world, where Manila is quietly becoming one of the most crowded cities on the planet.
[19:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You may have heard of the thrill of Manila, that epic match between Muhammad Ali
[19:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: that was one of the most hotly anticipated boxing matches of the century.
[19:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What most viewers didn't realize was that was about as hard as most Manila citizens have to fight on a regular basis just to grab a parking space.
[20:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As of 2023, the population of the Philippines capital is 14.6 million, squashed into roughly 16.56 square miles.
[20:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's 111,000 people crammed into each square mile.
[20:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So what's causing everyone to flock to this place?
[20:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, one of the reasons for Manila's growth is rural poverty.
[20:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: People in the countryside, if you were opportunity, so they upsticks and moved to the city.
[20:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Manila is overflowing to the point where children have to go to school in four-hour shifts throughout the day with some classes starting at dawn.
[20:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Philippines also has a strong Catholic faith and with subjects such as birth control considered taboo, it results in more young pregnancies.
[20:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: All this has taken a toll on the wildlife lack of sanitation means sewage and garbage end up clogging the Pacific River, which runs through Metro Manila.
[20:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Sadly the river was declared biologically dead in 1990.
[21:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, it's not all bad, there have been attempts to rehabilitate the river and re-naturation programs that've seen some species return.
[21:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The same positivity can't be applied to cruise-on-city jail, a 5.9 acre porous and built for 800 prisoners, but as of 2016 houses 3,800.
[21:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It makes the rest of Manila look like a national park.
[21:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: 160 to 200 people can end up crammed into a cell built for 20.
[21:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Boot rations are provided sporadically day and night sometimes with bits of junk and clock roaches inside.
[21:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Men must take turns sleeping wherever there's room being on a damp floor underneath a bed or on staircase steps.
[21:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I had to sleep on the stairs once when the extended family came to visit it.
[21:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Let me tell you, it ain't fun.
[21:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From the overcrowded cells of Manila to an even more extreme example of density, a fragment of rock and an African lake that two countries almost went to war over.
[22:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: When you were a kid, did you and your friends ever fight over stuff?
[22:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You know, silly things like over a toy, candy, or an island?
[22:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Wait, what was that last one?
[22:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While in 2016, my Gingo, a half-acre rock and Lake Victoria so completely covered and corrugated iron shacks, and from a distance it looks like a single rusted structure rising from the water.
[22:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There are no open spaces, no yards, no gardens, just narrow passages between buildings and the constant lap of the lake on every side.
[22:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This island was the scene of an international squabble between Kenya and Uganda.
[22:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: My kingo's story starts in 2004 when one of centric fishermen who lived on the island caught an unbelievable amount of fish.
[22:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The island itself is located in Lake Victoria, whose waters are precariously shared by Uganda Kenya and Tanzania.
[23:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Word of the catch eventually spread reaching Kenya and Uganda, the island's landmass is only half an acre, which is smaller than Bill Gates's house.
[23:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However that didn't discourage people from relocating there for those sweet sweet fish, or rather the money that comes from those sweet sweet fish.
[23:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Nile Purchas were tens of millions of dollars in exports to the EU and beyond every year.
[23:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Sadly, and rather predictably, that money doesn't all go to the fishermen doing the work.
[23:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But they still make a living.
[23:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And men can go fishermen have caught more than £220 a fish a day, which can earn them over $370.
[23:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's around three to four times what the average Canyon or Uganda makes in a month.
[23:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Though this industry has taken its toll on the waters with some fish stocks falling by 80%.
[23:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It looks like there aren't plenty more fish in the sea or lake.
[24:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The 2009 Kenyan census put the population around 131 people though, leather reports estimated to be around 500.
[24:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Whatever the number, that would make the density around 170,000 min gingons per square mile.
[24:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Today, the island houses four bars of pharmacy, a hair salon, and several, well, let's say, adult businesses?
[24:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: How much are you using your imagination?
[24:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Uganda and Kenya both claim ownership of the island both keen to text the fishermen.
[24:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This makes Manga one of the world's tiniest territorial disputes.
[24:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Don't worry, the country's four ministers both stepped in before things escalated and now Uganda and Kenya co-manives the island.
[24:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: See now it's like we can go ahead to Landlord's.
[24:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yeah, yeah.
[24:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From our disputed island in Lake Victoria, we cross the Atlantic to Columbia, where us similarly tiny island has quietly become one of the most densely packed places on Earth.
[25:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From the water sent the crews day I looked day looks less like an island and more like a single tightly packed structure dropped right into the sea.
[25:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Bright painted walls, flat rooftops, odd all angles, every inch of land so completely built upon that the shoreline and the buildings are essentially the same thing.
[25:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's small, just 2.4 acres, that's not even as big as two football fields, less than 0.04 square miles, it's bustling with live.
[25:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Pending down the exact number of residents is tricky since a census has an occurred in decades leading to estimates ranging from 500 to 1200 people.
[25:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: At the top end though, and scaled up, this means the island has a population density of over 250,000 people per square mile.
[26:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's a population density at least four times that of Manhattan, New York.
[26:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you would have entered back 150 years, you would have found Santa Cruz completely uninhabited, but eventually Fisherman discovered it while seeking shelter from storms.
[26:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Unlike other islands that are surrounded by mosquito-attracting mangroves, Santa Cruz Island is parasite free.
[26:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: People flocked there for its multiple fish and built on every available lunch.
[26:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The island's residents even extended its land by gathering whatever they could find, saying shells, tree trunks, and even litter.
[26:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Since 2017, the island boasts 97 houses and 47 permanent families who mainly rely on tourism for income.
[26:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Fishing was once the main source of profit but has been in decline due to climate change in unsustainable practices.
[26:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That isn't the only problem facing Santa Cruz.
[26:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It lacks basic facilities like toilets, sewage systems, drinkable water and regular food supplies all of which need to be imported.
[27:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Luckily the islanders are resilient, they gather rainwater for drinking and washing, they manage with a single diesel generator which only runs in the evenings due to cost,
[27:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Delighting the loads solar panels were installed in 2015 courtesy of the Cartagena government.
[27:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, don't go sing in the government's praises too, Adley.
[27:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The authorities are supposed to deliver supplies and remove waste weekly, but often it takes weeks if not months for boats to arrive.
[27:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I'll tell my wife that the next time she nags me for forgetting to flush.
[27:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From a Colombian island of a few acres, let's scale up dramatically to a district of Mumbai that packs a more people per acre than almost anywhere else on Earth.
[27:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Let's have over to any of the most populated country in the world and head to Mumbai, one of the most populated cities in the world.
[27:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And within this jammed city is the Jameyis district of all, Durovi.
[27:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Seen from above Durovi is a dense patchwork of low corrugated metal rooftop stretching for over half a square mile sitting directly between the gleaming glass towers of Mumbai's financial district.
[28:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and its busiest business corridors that contrast its stark, one of the world's most expensive skyline sharing a border with one of its most overcrowded communities.
[28:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On the ground narrow lanes weed between workshops, homes, and open sewers.
[28:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's India's largest slum housing around 1 million people with over 917,000 individuals per square mile.
[28:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And do Ravi, many of the houses like running water often more than 10 people share a single room and more than 80 people can share a single toilet.
[28:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Opened sewers are all too common, leading to high disease rates that include cholera, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and typhoid.
[28:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even with its challenge as life endowed on me is an all bad, community spirit is strong and people come together for everything.
[29:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From washing dishes to doing laundry and communal spaces, this unity might be a reason why surprisingly
[29:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The only did do Ravi children or slackers, either.
[29:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: School attendance is high making do Ravi the most educated slum in the country with a literacy rate of 69%.
[29:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Only 10% lower than the USA.
[29:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's eye-opening.
[29:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Despite its poverty, do Ravi is surrounded by industrial and financial hubs.
[29:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This hasn't gone unnoticed by developers, many of whom ever repeatedly tried and failed to build upon the land since the 1990s.
[29:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To transform this area at three problems need to be tackled, big plots of land need to be snagged, investors lured, and new homes need to be found for the massive community.
[29:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Not exactly easy requests.
[29:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For residents to be eligible for relocation, they must prove they've lived in Duravi before January 1, 2000.
[29:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, up to 40% of the population lacked the proper paperwork.
[30:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To complicate matters further by April 2023, the Mumbai government had only managed to get their hands on around 50 acres of tightly packed land for the relocated Doravi population.
[30:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So clearly, not their top priority.
[30:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And do not be extraordinary as it is, isn't even the densest settlement in this story.
[30:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That title belongs to a place that no longer exists, but who shadow still falls over Hong Kong.
[30:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Not too long ago, and an unclave of Hong Kong was a city like no other.
[30:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Cal Lu, Walt City.
[30:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From the outside, a single impossible structure, 14 story blocks fused together while sharing walls, floor sharing ceilings, the whole mass so tightly interlocked it looked like one enormous concrete organism, rather than 350 separate buildings.
[30:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Inside a labyrinth of narrow alleyways that rarely saw daylight pipes and wiring running freely across every surface, the smell of food from hundreds of tiny restaurants mixing with machine oil from the factories one floor up, a city within a city within a city.
[31:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Cityception.
[31:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: From the outside you think it was a bunch of buildings built into each other and it wouldn't be wrong.
[31:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This city complex was 6.4 acres in size but packed inside were 50,000 people.
[31:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's round 4.97 million people per square mile, nearly five times the density of even doodravi.
[31:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Calloon's history begins in 1843 during the King Dynasty, the world's city was erected as a defense against British influence.
[31:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: After the King Dynasty's fall, the British claimed ownership of the city but left it untouched.
[31:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: After World War II waves of refugees flooded the Calloan Peninsula, including those fleeing the Chinese Civil War.
[31:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: By 1947, the city housed over 2,000 squatters, and under a strain by any architectural rules, people began building on top of pre-existing structures left right and center.
[32:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Eventually, the city morphed into 350 interconnected high-rise buildings tend to 14-storey time, each a mishmash of material sizes and heights.
[32:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Private landlords offering low rents attracted entrepreneurs leading to hundreds of factories popping up within the complex, turning out products that were exported across the globe.
[32:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: British Hong Kong chose to let things be leading to an anarchic and self-governed city
[32:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This voidsaw, addiction, and the triads Chinese criminal gangs through Rhyme.
[32:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, don't let the bad rep get you down most of Kalun citizens were ordinary and law-biting.
[32:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Many of whom joined community groups seeking to improve life within Kalun.
[32:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This way of life came to an end in the early 1970s when over 3,500 police rates took place.
[33:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Over 4,000 pounds of narcotics were seized and around 2,500 people were arrested.
[33:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Subsequently, by 1987, both British and Chinese governments decided it was time to dismantle the city.
[33:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: A hefty compensation of $350 million was distributed to residents and businesses before they were relocated.
[33:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Between November 1991 and 1992, the final residence left, some willingly, some forced by riot police.
[33:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: After that, Calum was destroyed and in 1993, Calum waltz city park was built in its place.
[33:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: With that, our current world tour comes to an end.
[33:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I don't know about you, but I'm going to go stand in a big empty field for a while.
[33:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Do you live somewhere super crowded?
[33:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Let us know on social media, and thanks for listening.
[33:54] \[UNKNOWN\]: Thank you for watching.

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