Map on Monday: East Asian Demography

As the text on the map indicates, the circled area contains over half of the world's population. Some of the nations within the circle include:

• China (population: 1.367 billion, #1 overall)
• India (population: 1.261 billion #2 overall)
• Indonesia (population: 252 million, #4 overall)
• Pakistan (population: 188 million, #6 overall)
• Bangladesh (population: 157 million, #8 overall)
• Japan (population: 127 million, #10 overall)
• Philippines (population: 100.5 million, #12 overall)
• Vietnam (population: 89 million, #13 overall)
• Thailand (population: 65 million, #21 overall)  
• Burma (population: 51 million, #25 overall)
• South Korea (population: 50 million, #26 overall)

Although the above list of nations does not include every nation circled on the map, these eleven nations alone total 3.7 billion people, which is over half of the world's 7.125 billion people.

With over half the world's population located within this circled area, many goods are shipped into this region from the outside world. The Strait of Malacca (see map below) is the main shipping route which connects the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. About 25% of all the world's shipped oil passes through the Strait of Malacca. Its enormous strategic importance makes the smaller nations of Malaysia (population: 30 million, #43 overall) and Singapore (population: 5.4 million, #115 overall) major geopolitical players, despite being significantly smaller in geography and population than their regional neighbors.