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Analytical Overview
The population density grid was clipped to the drylands extent.


Drylands: Population Density

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Regionally, Asia has the largest population living in drylands, both in terms of numbers and percent: over 1.4 billion people, or 42 percent of the region’s population. Africa has nearly the same percentage of people living in drylands-- 41 percent-- although the total number is less than Asia’s: nearly 270 million. South America has 30 percent of its population in drylands or approximately 87 million people.

Of the three aridity zones defining drylands, semi-arid and dry sub-humid lands are the most populated by people. Some of the highest population densities in the world are found in the semi-arid and dry sub-humid zones of India. Other pockets of high population densities occur in the dry sub-humid zones of eastern China, the Middle East, and West Africa.
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Citation:
WRI. 2002. World Resources Institute. Drylands, People, and Ecosystem Goods and Services: A Web-based Geospatial Analysis. Available online at: http://www.wri.org
Sources:
  1. United Nations Environment Program/Global Resource Information Database. Prepared by U. Diechmann and L. Eklundh. 1991, Global Digital Datasets for Land Degradation Studies: a GIS Approach. Nairobi, Kenya:UNEP/GEMS and GRID.
  2. Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and World Resources Institute (WRI). 2000, Gridded Population of the World, Version 2 Alpha. Palisades, NY, USA:IESIN and Columbia University.
  3. Office to Combat Desertification and Drought. 1997, Aridity Zones and Dryland Populations: an Assessment of Population Levels in the World’s Drylands. New York, New York, USA: UNSO/UNDP.