Why This Tiny Island Has More People Than Russia

Lived on Java for two years. The smallest 'town' I lived in had 1 million people. I also ate rice with every meal. When I moved back to the US I couldn't understand how empty everything felt and even said it didn't 'look complete.' I also was very timid to start driving on American highways again because I truly could not comprehend the speeds. Even now, over 5 years later, when I go to "big cities" like Houston or even Paris I'm wondering where all the people are. Edit: ❤ Indonesia, debar jantungku

The bizarre population densities in some parts of the Indian subcontinent and the East Indies are truely unbelievable

As a Javanese and have been living in Yogyakarta for 6 years, I took all these things for granted. I have never thought volcanoes are so important to our lives. But it changed after I watched this.

Java is awesome. Yogyakarta is one of my favorite cities. Jakarta is populous but honestly doesn’t feel crowded at all. Indonesians are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Recommend visiting Indonesia to anyone.

As an Indonesian myself, the thought of seeing Java having a very large population with limited land mass is mindboggling enough, until I look up India and they even have one state (Uttar Pradesh) that almost make up the entire population of Indonesia.

There was a centralisation policy during Soeharto era (1960s to 1990s). During that time, most of Indonesian resources went to Java. Therefore, almost all nation developments only happened in Java. This propelled people movement from less developed islands in Indonesia to Java. The effects of this policy still can be feel even today. Most of Indonesia infrastructure are located in Java whereas other islands like Papua etc has less developed infrastructure.

I'm from central Europe and I lived in Jakarta/Indonesia for 4 years. I've been around Java Island a bit like Jogja but also visited other Islands like Sumatra. I have to say, in terms of culture & language it is almost like a different country. As a matter of fact not everyone speaks Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia) fluently. For instance, a Javanese wouldn't understand what a Sundanese is saying (unless both would be speaking bahasa Indonesia & not their own languages). I also picked up batak language from North Sumatra, nobody in the capital city would ever understand and vice versa.

I’m half javanese and grew up split between Surakarta and Australia. And the density difference is wild. Traffic is insane, public events are packed but despite that i still loved Indonesia. Neighbours were like family- in australia i barely know my neighbours and i’ve lived on the same street for twenty years. Little warungs (cafes) everywhere in indo - in australia i need to drive to get food. One of the biggest things i found is the fact that all the towns and cities run into each other indo but in Western Australia (my home state) you can drive for five hours and see nothing

1. rice 2. volcanoes 3. Java was not a urban civilization, and since the transition of a country going from rural to urban involves the introduction of revolutionary technology (vaccines, fertilizer) the population growth will increase tremendously during the transition period, but growth will permanently slow down. This also explains as to why Japan has less people than Java today. Japan became a urban country much earlier than Java, meaning it didn't have as good as technology Java had access to in the beggining of it's urbanization. 4. equatorial climate

As a civ6 player this is totally understandable. With that many volcanos, the lands would have absurdly high food production. Each eruption might kill a few, but they grow back in a few turns.

It should also be mentioned that Borneo and New Guinea have a great portion of natural untouched forests, so yes they are less "productive" in comparison to Java regarding their size, but that's not necessarily a bad thing

I can't believe how well-researched your videos are. That's why I prefer your content over competition. You knock them out of the park by a long shot!

The sound of Krakatoa stopped being audible at that distance, but the pressure wave continued at the speed of sound and was detectable by weather stations around the world- repeatedly, because the pressure wave circled the entire globe at least once.

I live in Bandung, the capital of West Java and several months ago I visited the island of Sumatra, Padang City to be exact. And I saw HUGE differences between two of the major island. In sumatra, the roads are less clogged by the traffic. Compared to my hometown, it was normal for people to drive or ride their motorbike at around 60-70 km per hour, which you can’t achieve that kind of speed in Java because of the traffic. And also in West Sumatra is more sparsely populated so you still can see lots of dense forests across the Province. Secondly, the rice is also feels different, in Java the rice feels more “sticky” or as we Sundanese people of West Java call it as “Pulen”. Compared to the ones in Sumatra which happen to be more “scattered” but the rice went SO GOOD with their Minangkabau Cuisine. Indonesian Islands are full of surprises. It just feels like you’re in completely different country even if you only visit other islands or cities.

Much more astonishing than this is the fact that metropolitan Tokyo has the same population as Canada.

Went to Belitung last week (and my first time to visit Sumateran's area). Never, never in my life, saw such peace across the island of Belitung. Soooo few people, it was even fewer than rural area of Java, even though they had same vibes....

As a sumatran (java neighbor island) that recently visited java for holiday, you literally will and will always see people everywhere you go 😂, but it's not really a problem though because javanese are incredibly nice people and the foods there are incredibly cheap.. Also the infrastructure in java is more advanced than any other island in indonesia so that's why we non javanese sometimes feel jealous but thanks to the current government they boost up the infrastructures to all places in indonesia

Saying Java as a tiny island is such an understatement in my opinion. Yes, it is smaller than other big islands in Indonesia. But Java itself sitting at 13 largest island in the world. It looks smaller because it is on equator which is the disadvantage of Mercator projection. The living condition is not cramped as how u imagine Hongkong (except for some big cities such as Jakarta). We still have forest here.

I remember having an American online friend that visited Indonesia (Bandung my hometown especially), i will always find it funny how he freaks out that every food contains rice as the main dish 😂

Your narrations dynamic is very engaging and factual. The educational and informative value is immense, specially for me, an history and geography buff. I wish these "trivial" topics would be shown to students in the school system. Knowledge is power.