How dense is your city? (opens in new tab)

(citydensity.com)

66 pointsepivosism2y ago68 comments

68 comments

For those who liked this, I frequently come back to this visual which displays the distribution within a city in an arguably more visually appealing format:

https://www.vox.com/2015/1/2/7480993/population-density-visu...

It helps explain the low-density feel that a city like London has compared to most large non-European cities.

The original source is the third panel here: https://issuu.com/lsecities/docs/hongkong2011newspaper/9

sasja2y ago

Love this! Fyi I noticed Kaohsiung was listed incorrectly as Kaohsiung (China) instead of Kaohsiung (Taiwan). Strange as Taipei was listed correctly as Taipei (Taiwan).

timcameron2y ago

Accompanying tweet thread: https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Nolan_/status/17641429989949484...

Bellspringsteen2y ago

Interesting, NYC vs Tokyo. NYC is winning up until 20km. We need higher density queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Jersey.

I don't think this takes into account water around cities. For NYC harbour south of downtown pull us down?

pseudocomposer2y ago

Is higher density “winning?”

nerdbert2y ago

Better for the planet, better food and cultural options, shorter travel times for typical daily activities... in my book it definitely is.

jskherman2y ago

Have you tried living in the dense cities like Mumbai, India or Manila, Philippines? It's quite clear that with population density, trash output also increases and is harder to manage. By experience, it's not a pleasant way to live or for the environment. It's a lot dirtier.

2 more replies

ars2y ago

And worse for the people who live there. I get anxiety just thinking of living in a dense city. Everyone I know who left a dense city never wants to go back - they talk like people who suffered from Stockholm syndrome and were now freed.

And that doesn't even touch the economics: For the most part cities make money by services and not by physical items. Services are very lucrative, so on paper cities make tons of money. But they don't make anything people need to live.

Virtually every single thing people buy in a city comes from outside the city. It's not a lifestyle that everyone can adopt. For the most part there's a balance, with some living in a city and some rural - but people should be extremely cautious about any kind of policy that can mess with that balance.

5 more replies

infotainment2y ago

I'd say that density is generally a good thing, IMO. The more people live in a place, generally access to things is more convenient, commutes are shorter, etc. Low density generally means sprawl.

gumby2y ago

By and large: yes.

Higher density cities are the ecologically least damaging mode of housing and provide more of what makes cities great: more people doing interesting things, more opportunities for interactions, education, access to health care, etc.

Now there are plenty of people who don't want that, but then they don't want to be in an urban environment at all. So I'm not saying it's winning for every person. But on a continuum from ultra-rural to ultra dense I think a graph of "quality of life for residents-by-choice" would be a saddle curve. Less dense cities, and most suburbs (by the US definition) are neither fish nor fowl.

epivosismOP2y ago

This is really great. I want to review this for everywhere I've been, because the variation in how gov'ts do statistics is hiding so much of what's actually going on there.

user_78322y ago

It’s really helpful to have such a visualisation tool. I’ve felt Mumbai as being quite dense (partially because of the sea around it), and throwing a few “most dense cities” like Dhaka/Manila/Tokyo/Jakarta so far still results in Mumbai having the highest cumulative density values (made much more explicit when excluding large water bodies).

Question/challenge: can anyone find any other city with a greater density? Dhaka is close but has a lower peak and tapers off faster.

forthwall2y ago

The Hong Kong core, makes sense because the HK core is super-dense

seanmcdirmid2y ago

The reason HK is not more dense in general is because much of the TAR is unlivable water and mountains that have to be worked around (lots of bridges and tunnels). Once you just count people on livable land, its density shoots up. It isn’t like other cities where density ever tapers off, it’s just clumps of apartment skyscrapers here and there.

user_78322y ago

Nice find! Yes, makes a lot of sense that HK is also going to be dense. And it’s islandic geography could explain why it drops off.

wolverine8762y ago

Note that the default graph is 'weighted density', to show you "how dense an area feels for the typical person who lives there." I didn't see where it says how it's calculated.

You can change it to other measurements, including straight density.

mjamesaustin2y ago

I love this project, but I find some of the UI decisions baffling.

For instance, as I add cities to my comparison, the colors of the cities I already have in the chart keep changing. Did anyone bother testing it, because that led to some serious confusion?

BenFranklin1002y ago

A question I’ve often wondered: how is density measured? Yes, I get it’s the total number of people per square mile, but how does work in detail? Do we count people if they only have their residential home there? If so, it means commercial buildings detracts toward this number. This tilts high density ratings towards residential areas like Somerville MA, which has no downtown to speak of, fewer public parks, and lacking in amenities. What it does have is lots and lots of run-down triple decker residential housing far as the eye can see. The city looks like a low-rent suburb rather than one of the densest cities in New England.

sacado22y ago

"0 people live within 5 km of Warsaw." (actual value is close to 2 millions).

"80.000 people live within 0 km of Paris." (ditto, 2 millions live there).

There are many other cities where the numbers are absurdly wrong. Don't take this tool too seriously, if at all.

forthwall2y ago

Interesting how San Francisco has almost the same density as NYC when you get to 2km. I wonder if this has to do with density of old neighborhoods surrounding fidi out-densitying most hoods in nyc

fragmede2y ago

The other interesting comparison is how similar SF and Stockholm are.

hughdbrown2y ago

According to this site, ever city in Canada is more densely populated than Toronto. It says 10 000 people live within 18 km of Toronto versus 1.5 million for Vancouver.

sho2y ago

It would be awesome to write/read the selected cities into/from the URL so selections could be shared easily.

justoreply2y ago

I'm always getting this error message

   Disconnected from the server.
   Reload

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

68 comments

vinay4272y ago

For those who liked this, I frequently come back to this visual which displays the distribution within a city in an arguably more visually appealing format:

https://www.vox.com/2015/1/2/7480993/population-density-visu...

It helps explain the low-density feel that a city like London has compared to most large non-European cities.

The original source is the third panel here: https://issuu.com/lsecities/docs/hongkong2011newspaper/9

sasja2y ago

Love this! Fyi I noticed Kaohsiung was listed incorrectly as Kaohsiung (China) instead of Kaohsiung (Taiwan). Strange as Taipei was listed correctly as Taipei (Taiwan).

timcameron2y ago

Accompanying tweet thread: https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Nolan_/status/17641429989949484...

Bellspringsteen2y ago

Interesting, NYC vs Tokyo. NYC is winning up until 20km. We need higher density queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Jersey.

I don't think this takes into account water around cities. For NYC harbour south of downtown pull us down?

pseudocomposer2y ago

Is higher density “winning?”

nerdbert2y ago

Better for the planet, better food and cultural options, shorter travel times for typical daily activities... in my book it definitely is.

jskherman2y ago

2 more replies

ars2y ago

5 more replies

infotainment2y ago

I'd say that density is generally a good thing, IMO. The more people live in a place, generally access to things is more convenient, commutes are shorter, etc. Low density generally means sprawl.

gumby2y ago

By and large: yes.

epivosismOP2y ago

This is really great. I want to review this for everywhere I've been, because the variation in how gov'ts do statistics is hiding so much of what's actually going on there.

user_78322y ago

Question/challenge: can anyone find any other city with a greater density? Dhaka is close but has a lower peak and tapers off faster.

forthwall2y ago

The Hong Kong core, makes sense because the HK core is super-dense

seanmcdirmid2y ago

user_78322y ago

Nice find! Yes, makes a lot of sense that HK is also going to be dense. And it’s islandic geography could explain why it drops off.

wolverine8762y ago

Note that the default graph is 'weighted density', to show you "how dense an area feels for the typical person who lives there." I didn't see where it says how it's calculated.

You can change it to other measurements, including straight density.

mjamesaustin2y ago

I love this project, but I find some of the UI decisions baffling.

For instance, as I add cities to my comparison, the colors of the cities I already have in the chart keep changing. Did anyone bother testing it, because that led to some serious confusion?

BenFranklin1002y ago

sacado22y ago

"0 people live within 5 km of Warsaw." (actual value is close to 2 millions).

"80.000 people live within 0 km of Paris." (ditto, 2 millions live there).

There are many other cities where the numbers are absurdly wrong. Don't take this tool too seriously, if at all.

forthwall2y ago

Interesting how San Francisco has almost the same density as NYC when you get to 2km. I wonder if this has to do with density of old neighborhoods surrounding fidi out-densitying most hoods in nyc

fragmede2y ago

The other interesting comparison is how similar SF and Stockholm are.

hughdbrown2y ago

According to this site, ever city in Canada is more densely populated than Toronto. It says 10 000 people live within 18 km of Toronto versus 1.5 million for Vancouver.

sho2y ago

It would be awesome to write/read the selected cities into/from the URL so selections could be shared easily.

justoreply2y ago

I'm always getting this error message

   Disconnected from the server.
   Reload

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse