[talk-au] Putting things into perspective...

[Jeff Price]

Its for this reason that I often ponder the realistic long term coverage OSM can expect for Australia and other low density locations.  There are just some many km's of stuff to map that starting from a blank canvas for the majority of towns out there can be overwhelming, expensive(fuel), and not environmentally sound (if by car purely to do a gps trace or field audit).  Yes it can be rewarding when see it take shape, but still a big ask.  For similar reasons I have been slowly chasing local government mapping data so that we can at least fill in a few blanks on the canvas (even if its not 100% correct) so that people can invest time into making it better instead of making it exist.

Jeff.




________________________________
From: John Smith <delta_foxtrot at yahoo.com>
To: talk-au at openstreetmap.org
Sent: Thursday, 30 July, 2009 3:15:23 AM
Subject: [talk-au] Putting things into perspective...


I was watching the State of the Map Canadian talk and they point out how low the population density of Canada is, also the fact most of the population lives within about 100 miles of the US border. Australia has a lower population density but suffers the same fate when it comes to the majority of the population clustering around the border essentially.

Most information is from CIA world fact book site, which gives July 2009 estimates.

Landmass in Mill. Sq km
-----------------------
2. Canada 10
3. USA    9.8
6. Aust.  7.7
85.UK      0.2

Population in Mill
------------------
4. USA    307 (82% urban)
23.UK      61 (90% urban)
39.Canada  33 (80% urban)
55.Aust.   21 (89% urban)

Information from wikipedia is from some 2004 estimate but the order is what I was after the actual density can be calculated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density

Population Density (People per Sq km)
-------------------------------------
52. UK      305.0
177.USA       31.3
227.Canada  3.3
232.Aust.   2.7
238.Denmark 0.03

Density Map
------------
http://www.mapsofworld.com/australia/images/populatilon-dencity.gif

To sum up, Australia is the 6th largest country in the world, by area excluding Antarctica etc, yet almost the lowest population density in the world, and for the most part Canada is in the same boat.


      

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