# how much land per man?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-land-per-man/61825>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 13, 2001, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-land-per-man/61825 "2001-04-13T12:38:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Osip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4491bb/32.png) [@Osip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osip)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2001, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-land-per-man/61825/1 "2001-04-13T12:38:51Z")

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Reading an overpopulation thread in GD I got to wondering.  
If the worlds land were divided equally between every man woman and child, apporximately how much land would they have?  
How many people per square mile?  
how does that relate to 10 and 5 years ago?

I know is only a matter of finding numbers and doing the math, yet I am crunched for time.

any answers will be appreciated.

Back to lurking,  
Osip

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**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2001, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-land-per-man/61825/2 "2001-04-13T12:51:19Z")

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References for [Land Area](http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/DanielChen.shtml) and [World Population](http://www.census.gov/)…

57,500,000 sq mi div. by 6,140,800,000 people

0.0094 sq mi per person (or 260,000 sq ft per person)

But I’d feel sorry for the person stuck out in the middle of Antarctica!

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-land-per-man/61825/3 "2001-04-13T15:46:01Z")

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That’s over 6 acres per person, or 24 acres for a family of 4. If you take away Greenland and Antacrtica, there’s still more than 5 acres per person, but of course some of that is rather inhospitable (deserts, tundra, etc).

In the U.S. there are about 9 acres per person. Africa is actually less densely populated that the U.S., with almost 10 acres per person. That’s not entirely a fair comparison, though, since we have better technology, and they have bigger deserts.

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**Author:** ![Osip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4491bb/32.png) [@Osip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osip)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2001, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-land-per-man/61825/4 "2001-04-14T03:01:45Z")

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Mucho grassy ass my friends I am now the wiser.

Osip

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**Author:** ![Glenoled](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Glenoled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glenoled)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2001, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-land-per-man/61825/5 "2001-04-14T15:51:01Z")

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want more land? start pumping out kids now!!  
_POP_ Woohoo!! another 5 acres!! Now I can build that workshop I wanted!! 😃