Why do some geographical areas have such high population densities?

Factual Questions
21

I posted this before, but it disappeared into the electronic ether. Okay, let me explain why coastal regions tend to have more people than the interior:

First, they have cities. Big cities. Bigger than inland. When given a choice, people usually choose to live in the city than the countryside.

Right, but how did those cities get so big? They buy food from inland. With what money? The money they get from international and domestic trade, which is made much easier by being on the coast and having a port for merchant ships to dock in.

Coastal city=>port=>trade=>money=>buying food from farmlands in the interior

This is how it works on farmlands:

Places with lots of fresh water (rivers and lakes) also have rich soils. These rich soils make for rich farmland. These rich farmlands produce lots of food. This food can be sold to cities (coastal and otherwise). More food produced means a greater ability to support people who don’t produce food (i.e. city dwellers).

Fresh water(rivers and lakes)=>rich soil=>farmland=>food=>
selling food to cities

I hope that’s simplified enough. To reiterate, just in case it’s not:

Fresh water(rivers and lakes)=>rich soil=>farmland=>food=>
selling food to cities

AND FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF COASTAL CITIES:

Coastal city=>port=>trade=>money=>buying food from farmlands in the interior

22

What about Atlanta? Charlotte NC, Raleigh NC, Richmond VA. Those are all on the fall line, I think. Or do you count those as ooastal?

And Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Houston, Salt Lake City, Omaha, St. Louis.

What kinda choice?

23

Umm, until my last post I hadn’t put forward any hypotheses of my own (or am I misunderstanding the “now” in your post?)

24

I was speaking of regions, not cities. If you go above individual cities and look at regions, you’ll see that the East and West Coasts have greater population density than inland America, and like I said before, the area around the Great Lakes and on the East Coast is so dense in people it counts as one of the world’s most populated regions. Look at the maps Fern Forest linked to and you can see what I mean.

Besides which, I said coastal regions “tend” to have more people. It’s not a law of nature or anything like that.

I was again speaking in general. Historically, more rural folk move to the city than the other way around. Yes, there are urban dwellers who choose to leave the city, but they’re usually replaced by lots more people from the countryside.

25

Oops, sorry G., I misspoke (or rather, mistyped).