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Regional population
Population is unevenly distributed among regions within countries. Differences in climatic and environmental conditions discourage human settlement in some areas and favour concentration of the population around a few urban centres. This pattern is reinforced by the higher economic opportunities and wider availability of services stemming from urbanisation itself.
Definition
The number of inhabitants of a given region, the total population, can be either the average annual population or the population at a specific date during the year considered. The average population during a calendar year is generally calculated as the arithmetic mean of the population on 1 January of two consecutive years (it is also referred to as the mean population). However, some countries calculate it differently, they use the population based on registers or estimate it on a date close to 1 July (mid-year population).
The geographic concentration index offers a more accurate picture of the spatial distribution of the population, as it takes into account the area of each region.
The geographic concentration index compares the population weight and the geographic weight over all regions in a given country and is constructed to account for both within and between-country differences in the size of all regions. The index lies between 0 (no concentration) and 100 (maximum concentration) in all countries and is suitable for international comparisons of geographic concentration.
Comparability
The main problem with statistical analysis at the sub-national level is the unit of analysis, i.e. the region. The word «region” can mean very different things both within and among countries, with significant differences in area and population.
The smallest OECD region (Melilla, Spain) has an area of 13 square kilometres whereas the largest (Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada) has over 3 million square kilometres. Similarly, the population in OECD regions ranges from about 400 inhabitants in Balance ACT (Australia) to more than 47 million in Kanto (Japan).
To address this issue, the OECD has classified regions within each member country. The classification is based on two territorial levels. The higher level (Territorial Level 2) consists of 335 macro regions and the lower level (Territorial Level 3) is composed of more than 1 679 micro regions. Territorial Level 0 indicates the territory of the whole country while Level 1 denotes groups of macro regions. This classification which, for European countries, is largely consistent with the Eurostat classification, facilitates greater comparability of regions at the same territorial level. Indeed, these two levels, which are officially established and relatively stable in all member countries, are used by many as a framework for implementing regional policies.
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Overview The concentration of population is the highest in Australia, Canada, Iceland, the United States and Mexico, where 10% of regions account for no less than 47% of their population. In contrast, the territorial distribution appears more balanced, according to this statistic, in the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Denmark. For the OECD as a whole, regional population density ranges from close to zero in Kitikmeot Region (Canada) to 20 504 persons per km2 in Paris (France). The variation is particularly large in France, Korea and the United Kingdom. In these countries, there is a sharp contrast between predominantly urban regions which record densities of more than 6 000 inhabitants per km2 and predominantly rural regions where population densities do not exceed 100 inhabitants per km2. In all OECD countries, almost half (46%) of the population lives in predominantly urban regions. In the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, the United States, Italy, Canada, Korea and Portugal, urban regions account for more that 50% of the national population. The index of geographic concentration shows that Canada, Australia and Iceland are the countries with the most uneven population distribution; in contrast, geographic concentration is lowest in the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland. |
Source
- OECD (2007), OECD Regions at a Glance, OECD, Paris.
Further information
Analytical publications
- OECD (2001), OECD Territorial Outlook, 2001 Edition, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2005), OECD Territorial Reviews, OECD, Paris.
- Spiezia, V. (2003), "Measuring Regional Economies”, OECD Statistics Brief, No. 6, October, OECD, Paris, www.oecd.org/std/statisticsbrief.
Statistical publications
- OECD (2005), Labour Force Statistics 1984-2004 – 2005 Edition, OECD, Paris.
Online databases
Share of national population in the 10% of regions with the largest population
Range of variation in regional population density
Distribution of the national population into urban, intermediate and rural regions
Index of geographic concentration of population
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