“Gaza is the most densely populated area on the planet!”
In almost every discussion about the conflict, eventually you will hear this argument. So I decided to look at the facts:
Area of Gaza: 139 square miles (360 square Km)
Population of Gaza: 1.81 million
Population density (rounding): 13,000 per square mile (5,000 per square Km)
So how does 13,000 people per square mile compare? (still rounding):
Tel Aviv: 20,000 people per square mile (how ironic)
Jerusalem: 16,000 people per square mile (still ironic)
Boston: 13,000 people per square mile
Madrid: 14,000 people per square mile
Hong Kong: 17,000 people per square mile
NY City: 27,000 people per square mile
Gaza does not show up even in the top 50 cities of the world in terms of density. The city with the highest density is Manila with 111,000 people per square mile, far far higher than Gaza.
By the way, the cynical comparison is many times made between Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto. Here is its density back then: 114,000 people per square mile!
