28 June 2021

Most People Live Near Sea Level

About 98% of the world's population lives at or below Denver, Colorado's elevation.


[Solid lines are cumulative distributions.] 

Approximately 1.88 × 109 people, or 33.5% of world population, live within 100 vertical meters of sea level. Only 15.6% of all occupied land lies below 100 m elevation. . . . Kopec estimated that 17% of all land (not limited to occupied land) lies below 100 m elevation.

From Joel E. Cohen and Christopher Small, "Hypsographic demography: The distribution of human population by altitude" 95 (24) PNAS 14009-14014 (November 24, 1998).

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