Population Density

Ran across this comment, which I will excerpt:

Princeton University is located in Mercer county which has a population of 350,761 (2000) and a land area of 229 square miles. This works out to be 1,532 people per square mile. This is somewhat above the average for all of New Jersey of 1,174 people per square mile. Note that New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation.

By contrast, Seoul (10.356 million people) has a population density of 44,310 people per square mile. Central Paris (2.154 million people) has a density 64,186 people per square mile. A better comparison is Urban Paris with a population of 9.645 million and 9,173 people per square mile. Greater London has 7.7 million people and 12,644 people per square mile.

The comment is left, as far as I can tell, as part of a response to Paul Krugman's column on how the U.S. has been left behind when it comes to getting people hooked up to broadband Internet. The gist is that it's a far easier task when everyone lives so close together.

I agree with this, actually, but I still think Krugman's larger point is valid: We - as in the U.S. telecoms - aren't even trying. Not to mention the U.S. government or FCC - they've not lifted a finger to make this happen.

Hopefully with the advent of newer, longer-range forms of wireless, high-speed Internet access will continue to grow in the U.S.

Bonus: Look at the numbers above, then check out those for Linn County, Oregon.

Population, 2006 estimate: 111,489 people
Land Area of Linn County: 2,292 square miles

That comes to roughly 48.6 people per square mile. Now in all fairness, Linn County is mostly agricultural and includes a lot of the Cascades foothills, but still. ~50 people per square mile vs. 12,000 for London? I can't wrap my head around that.

Benton County:

Population is 79,061.
Land Area is 679 square miles.
Population Density is 116.4 - quite a bit higher, but that's Corvallis for you, not to mention a much smaller county size.