are we in a particularly dence area of stars?

[bcullman]

Or, alternatively, are there areas of the universe where you'd be closer (under a lightyear, maybe?) to a lot of stars?

And, are there areas of the universe where the nearest star is many many lightyears away?

[Nametag]

are we in a particularly dence area of stars?

Yes. It's called a galaxy. We are not in the densest part of the galaxy, however. Nor are we in the relatively empty space between galaxies.

http://www.badastronomy.com/mad/2000/planet_galcen.html

[Hari Seldon]

We are about 2/3 of the way out on a limb of the galaxy and the stars population is rather thin. Galactic clusters are much denser, but if you want dense, go to the center of the galaxy, where it would always be broad daylight, the radiation flux would kill you and, right at the center, there is likely a massive black hole, maybe the size of a million suns. But there would be thousands of stars in every cubic light year, whereas where we are there is well under 1.

I would imagine that as you went further and further out on the limb, the density would decline until it gradually became intergalactic space.

[OxyMoron]

Depend on how close you are to Barbra Streisand.

[bcullman]

So, a few thousand stars per cubic lightyear is about as dense as star groupings get?

What are the densities between stars in sparsely populated areas?

[Mighty Maximino]

I find it immensly amusing that Hari Seldon is telling me we can't live at the center of the galaxy.

I would like to add another question: what's the farthest into the galaxy that humans could colonize before being fatally irradiated?