Which countries have the lowest population density?

A source-year-aware ranking of the least densely populated countries and territories, with mapped-area and interpretation caveats.

Ten lowest calculated population densities

EqualAtlas divides each profile's latest imported World Bank population observation by the area of its displayed Natural Earth geometry.

The collection includes ISO-coded territories as well as sovereign states. A sovereign-state-only ranking would exclude Greenland and begin with Mongolia under the current import.

The short answer

Greenland has the lowest calculated average in the complete EqualAtlas country-and-territory collection at approximately 0.03 people per km². Among sovereign states, Mongolia is lowest at about 2.3 people per km², followed in this dataset by Australia, Namibia and Iceland.

How the ranking is calculated

Density equals population divided by area. EqualAtlas uses the latest imported non-null World Bank population observation and divides it by the spherical area of the same generalized Natural Earth geometry displayed on the map.

Every row retains its population reference year. Profiles without a population observation are omitted rather than assigned zero, because missing data and zero population are not equivalent.

Why Greenland needs a label

Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, not a sovereign state. It is included because EqualAtlas provides individually coded country and territory profiles for complete cartographic coverage.

Lists that say only “countries” often mix or remove territories without explaining the rule. This page states both results so readers can compare like with like.

Low average density does not mean empty

A large national or territorial footprint can contain concentrated towns, transport corridors and populated coasts alongside vast sparsely inhabited areas. The average cannot show that internal pattern.

Canada, Australia and Iceland all contain urban areas whose local density is far above their national average. Gridded or subnational population data is required when the question is where people actually live.

Area definitions still matter

EqualAtlas density uses mapped area for consistency with its visualization. Official density statistics may use land area, exclude inland water or rely on more detailed coastlines, so their denominator—and therefore their result—can differ.

Explore the evidence

Sources and further reading

Continue with the Equal Earth projection guide, try the interactive map, or review our methodology.