Africa has more than one-eighth of the total population of the world, distributed over a land area representing slightly more than one-fifth of the land surface. Such desert areas as the Sahara, Kalahari, and Namib, however, have reduced the amount of habitable land, and such factors as climate, vegetation, and disease have tended to limit the evolution of densely populated areas where agriculture is practiced. With the advent of the colonial era, the African continent was divided into small geographically and politically based units that took little or no account of ethnic distribution. These political boundaries persisted, and the continent continued to be characterized by a large number of countries with predominantly small populations.
Wide variations in density occur from country to country in Africa and within countries. In general, the most densely populated areas are found bordering the lakes, in the river basins (especially those of the Nile and Niger), along the coastal belts of western and North Africa, and in certain highland areas, while settlement is the most sparse in the desert and savanna areas. Thus, Rwanda and Burundi, situated in the East African highlands, are the most densely populated countries in Africa, while Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Libya in the Sahara and Botswana and Namibia in the Kalahari and Namib are the least densely populated.
francis1897 answered the question on January 12, 2023 at 07:46
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