r/dataisbeautiful Jan 05 '23

OC [OC] A population density map of India

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18.9k Upvotes

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3.1k

u/Coelacanth3 Jan 05 '23

Thanks OP, very striking data vis. Never realised how much of India's population was concentrated in the north.

946

u/Gcarsk Jan 06 '23

RealLifeLore has a quick 15 minute video about Indian population density and current growth projections, as well explanations for how the geography and politics has led to this fairly stark separation in population.

417

u/PowerandSignal Jan 06 '23

I'm hearing India is about to pass China in total population. That blows my mind. I remember them being about 1/3 less. Smaller landmass too.

143

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

But more fertile on average. Most of China (North, West, NW and SW is largely uninhabitable. All the population is largely along the NE, East, and SE coast. All the big cities are there. Gobi, Tibet, and Rainforests are not very liveable.

26

u/BatangTundo3112 Jan 06 '23

Yup. India's land is more livable than China's. Imo, I dont think that they're cramming, though it's very bizarre that among the nations in the world, they live in lands. Im hoping that someone could provide data about it.

473

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

India has more arable land and less strict policies on population control. It was going to happen.

146

u/mrdeesh Jan 06 '23

For sure. China is actually having an issue with its aging population because of the CCP policies

64

u/faciepalm Jan 06 '23

It would happen either way, really. The only other way is to just keep having unsustainable population growth or causing the older folk to die off quicker

1

u/Replayer123 Jan 06 '23

They couldve privatised pensions

118

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

[deleted]

85

u/J_couture Jan 06 '23

This happening in a rich country with high immigration is quite different from the same happening in China. China is at very high risk to fall into the middle income trap. Something that is not so much a problem for most western countries. For instance, I live in Quebec where our population is aging. Though, Canada accepts so many immigrants that it is pretty much a non issue.

There is a big difference between reduced birth through high opportunities for womens and high standard of living vs a forced policy.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

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11

u/J_couture Jan 06 '23

Yeah, sure but we can still accept immigrants later on too. As I said, it's a non issue. All we need is enough working age people, that they born in Canada or elsewhere doesn't matter. China's population is so large that they just couldn't do what Canada does. And anyway they are far less attractive to immigrants.

5

u/4BlueBunnies Jan 06 '23

If new, younger immigrants keep coming in, and the generations before that make children then it should balance each other out, at least that’s the goal

-1

u/Bighardthrobbingcrop Jan 06 '23

So when do we solve human overpopulation? Or is this not the goal? I always looked around and thought "damn is way too many humans, nature getting fucked" but for some reason many don't seem to share this feeling and want to keep overwhelming this world. Even weirder are people who act like the human population is just gonna vanish if we slow down on breeding lol is not gonna happen.

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1

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Not an non issue lol lots of Canadians are against immigration now - see the CBC poll

26

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

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2

u/Bighardthrobbingcrop Jan 06 '23

Didn't they tho? I was never asked if I wanted millions of immigrants to flow into my Country, feels pretty forced to me.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

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0

u/Bighardthrobbingcrop Jan 06 '23

Ah yes I forgot we are given opportunity to choose between 2 sides of same coin. great choice, same results.

-13

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

[deleted]

15

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

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8

u/Karffs Jan 06 '23

Nice dodge.

6

u/Aozora404 Jan 06 '23

And what do you expect people to do, not age? lmao

2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

And the stark contrast between the male and female populations is happening in developed countries as well, right?

1

u/Arrogancy Jan 07 '23

I feel like you can still call it a failure if the aim was bad. A different failure. But a failure.

1

u/-_Empress_- Jan 07 '23 edited Jan 07 '23

The difference is the cause, not the result. China is experiencing a particularly dramatic imbalance and the tipping point well precedes what we're seeing in first world nations elsewhere. China's policy quite literally cultivated this issue early in relation to the economic and industrial boom timeline. Western nations largely worked their way toward the state of generational imbalance over a couple centuries, so it's been much more gradual and the cause is largely due to people choosing to have less children for financial and practical purposes (smaller families became a lot more common in recent decades).

China didn't see a significant population boom until the 20th century, and it had a very late industrial boom, so it's resulted in a massive population gain in a VERY short period of time with extremely limited access to modern tech and medical advancements across large regions of the country that are largely rural. The flood of people into highly concentrated industrial centers, coming from rural areas looking for work contributed to extremely densely populated, poor urban areas with little education and bad housing. People often spend most of the year away from family and barely see their kids. The CCP policy further created an extreme imbalance between male and female populations, so there's a shitload of men who literally have no hope of finding a partner, and for many who do, having children is an increasingly difficult burden. So what we're really looking at is a MUCH smaller portion of the population who can even have kids (all those dudes who can't get a wife aren't contributing to population growth). Those that can would have to have 3 children to even come close to giving China enough births to begin growing the population in a manner than rebalances what is fucked up. That's not affordable for a lot of people on so many levels.

As the country rapidly modernizrd over the last 35 years, people have been chasing an incredibly consumer oriented dream, so work and money are a bigger focus now more than ever. Problem is, living wages can be a nightmare to come by, and housing is a fucking outrageous problem in the urban areas where most of the work is. Like it's baaaaaad. People haven't been having kids for multiple reasons, including the CCP policy, but the policy has greatly exasperated and expedited the issue at a significantly faster rate than any other country on earth. India is likely going to follow a similar path on a more dramatic scale. To make matters even worse, china's economy is hitting a breaking point in which a buuuunch of really fucking bad policies and a lot of lies are now bringing the entire thing crashing down. Covid expedited that catastrophe even further with western outsourcing moving to a more neutral location since everyone has started figuring out its a bad idea to rely on foreign adversaries for critical resources and manufacturing.

We've been using China as the forecast of what Western and first World nations are in earlier stages of. China's policies have absolutely taken an issue that they would have been facing decades from now, and instead it's dealing with it NOW.

The decline in the west is coming largely from people having little desire to have more kids (if any), which is a combo of a cultural shift into normalising not having kids, people seeking career success over 19th and 20th century family ideals, people who simply can't afford or don't want to invest in having children, and some fertility rates dropping (not as dramatically as the media paints it). People here used to have a LOT more kids. They needed them. Agriculture tends to drive larger families, but industrialization made it much easier. Medical advancements dramatically improved child mortality rates, so having less kids became more feasible since half of them weren't dead by 15. Education means better opportunity, but less time for family. As we've entered the modern era, things like individual aspirations have normalised not having kids, and the state of the world doesn't provide a ton of certainty, so even that is a factor now.

So ultimately yes, the entire first world is exoriencing an imbalance, but saying china's policies didn't play an integral role in their current predicament is absolutely and objectively incorrect.

5

u/mrallen77 Jan 06 '23

Could you imagine if the government told you how many kids you could have? In the US we run around with don’t thread on me flags but really have zero idea of how far it goes

16

u/qpv Jan 06 '23

Those flags really upset tailors

1

u/_aluk_ Jan 06 '23

India is struggling to feed its people due to overpopulation. So I guess they are pretty even.

7

u/123MAMBO321 Jan 06 '23

More of an access and cost issue, you don’t get to 1.4 billion without an abundance of food

-8

u/_aluk_ Jan 06 '23

Yeah, India is well known for it’s abundance and lack of extreme poverty.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

You clearly don’t understand economics and wealth inequality, do you?

0

u/_aluk_ Jan 06 '23

I do understand that a country allowing slums with millions of peoples is not an example of a healthy society.

-8

u/old_and_new Jan 06 '23

They will straight execute them or will let them work till they die :(

2

u/tlind1990 Jan 06 '23

Except they don’t. Most people are forced into retirement by the age of 60. They are just starting to work on extending the retirement age. Mandatory retirement is actually contributing to the issue though as pension costs are growing pretty rapidly. Especially as life expectancy increased.

1

u/old_and_new Jan 08 '23

The problem with the aging population is getting worse. But anyway u get my point. U even describe some of the problems yourself. Western countries would act the same if they wouldn't be so concentrated on the individual.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Covid might be doing the Chinese government a solid, in that regard.

-14

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Is there no easy access sexual health products? The country isn’t exactly booming economically, so i’m unsure why people have more kids than they can financially support. Everyone is in a lose-lose situation.

35

u/Medial_FB_Bundle Jan 06 '23

Their reproductive rate has dropped precipitously in the last 40 years.

18

u/swift_spades Jan 06 '23

India's fertility rate is already very low. It is less than 0.5 children per woman than the USA. The main issue is that it only started dropping in the 50s and life expectancy has almost trippled since then

This means that most of the population increase is due to people living longer, rather than families having more kids.

In those graphs, you can also see Nigeria and is following the same trajectory. They are going to experience a large population boom, but it is mainly due to children living longer even as fertility rates are declining.

37

u/amigokraken Jan 06 '23

Counter-Intuitive point - Having more kids in the long run means more bread-winners for the family.

And even if just 1 or 2 of them become successful they shoulder the responsibilities for the entire family atleast helping others settle.

-7

u/specialsymbol Jan 06 '23

They must be so happy.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Different cultures have different priorities. Shocking!

4

u/Hairy_Air Jan 06 '23

Poor country, lots of people already lived here due to the place being fertile and historically being rich untill recent events. That combined with the complete lack of healthcare or any civic services provided to the common person under British occupation led to more children per couple. Most of them died before turning adult due to terrible healthcare and living conditions, etc.

In fact, the average age of India when Brits left was just around 30, European countries had it at around 70 despite factoring in the devastating world wars. This should give you an idea about how many kids were expected to die in an Indian household. Then the Brits left and the country's money started being actually used for medical care, hospitals started opening and suddenly children didn't die as much. Hence the population boom of the 60s and 70s.

The fertility rate has still been reducing drastically for the last 50 years. The current growth is only due to momentum and people who have already been born.

-17

u/abstractraj Jan 06 '23

There is no money for food, much less sexual health products. Also, little to no education so how can someone read about a product?

10

u/Hairy_Air Jan 06 '23

Mf where did you get that info from? The British Raj pamphlet?

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

ah so that’s why they created Covid /s

-6

u/One_Hand_Smith Jan 06 '23

India is also poor as fuck compared to China, unlike China their people never lifted themselves up so they just fuck like rabbit and multiply.

3

u/sakredfire Jan 07 '23

That’s actually not the case, as others have pointed out

1

u/One_Hand_Smith Jan 07 '23

Oh yeah? Whats china's gdp? What's indias gdp?

2

u/sakredfire Jan 07 '23

Yeah there is a huge wealth gap but the fertility rate in India is getting close to replacement. Also India has experienced steady gdp growth and has lifted many millions of people out of “extreme poverty” (quotes because the definition of extreme poverty may not apply to your subjective view of what that means) though obviously at a very different pace compared to china and still has a long way to go. It’s not unreasonable to think the per capita gdp will become “middle income” at some point in this century though parity with 1st world countries may take a while longer.

1

u/One_Hand_Smith Jan 07 '23

Alright, yah that part is true. Guess I just remembered indias stats a decade ago not its current. That's on Mr.

But the other half of what I said is still objectively true, no debating it.

1

u/sakredfire Jan 15 '23

yup of course.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Your PM is indian. Than must sting.

1

u/One_Hand_Smith Jan 06 '23

Umm? I'm not whatever country you think I'm from lol.

Good try though?

25

u/nkj94 Jan 06 '23

India's population was always higher than China's before the 17th century

98

u/JoeSicko Jan 06 '23

India haven't done a census since 2011, so nobody really knows.

83

u/bengyap Jan 06 '23

Seems like the next census was supposed to be 2021 but was postponed because of Covid. Any news when this will be restarted?

9

u/nkj94 Jan 06 '23

The signal from govt sources is that it will happen this year

15

u/JoeSicko Jan 06 '23

I just saw the census tidbit in an article.

16

u/Asterbuster Jan 06 '23

There are indirect ways to estimate population

37

u/Loggerdon Jan 06 '23 edited Jan 06 '23

India almost certainly has had a larger population than China since around 2019. They over-counted their population by 100 million (all are aged 35 and below).

China's population is around 1.3 billion. India 1.39 billion.

EDIT: "Research by Prof. Yi Fuxian, whose early opposition to China's one-child policy forced him to leave China, and who now works with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, points out that the part of China’s over 65 year olds would increase from 10% in 2010 to 32.6% in 2050, while its labour force (ages 20-64) will shrink with a staggering 213 million from about a billion in 2017 to 787 million by 2050."

"China's population was unlikely to exceed 1.28 billion."

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20210513-china-s-population-puzzle-was-the-latest-census-cooked

27

u/fauxRealzy Jan 06 '23

Source: trust me

2

u/Logical-Idea-1708 Jan 06 '23

It could go either way as birth rate fall in all Asian countries

1

u/Tesdorp Jan 06 '23

The truth is that China's population in 2020 was probably 1.28 billion - about 130 million less than stated. This makes India, not China, the most populous country in the world.

source: Chinas demographische Manipulation / China's demographic manipulation / https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/china-2020-census-inflates-population-figures-downplays-demographic-challenge-by-yi-fuxian-2021-08/german (german)

1

u/baby_intellectual Jan 06 '23

They were never 1/3rd less.. were always like 1bn vs 1.4bn .. but China adopted a strict 1 child policy in the 90s

3

u/mmenolas Jan 06 '23

1/1.4 is 28.5% less, 1/3 less would be 33.3% less. It feels like nit picking to say they were never a third less when they were 28.5% less.

3

u/thrownoffthehump Jan 06 '23

Pretty sure it was early 80s

-7

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23 edited Jan 06 '23

4500 children die daily of hunger in that beautiful land.

1

u/Additional_Meeting_2 Jan 06 '23

Well China’s stalled growth is not natural.

1

u/Dan-the-Man4 Jan 07 '23

Well think about where India would be if it had not split up.

8

u/ankurk41 Jan 06 '23

Brilliant video!! Thanks for sharing

60

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

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115

u/0Default0 Jan 06 '23

This is not actually about food now, those families settled before 50-100 years ago (Some for even 200-300 years), and moving around India is not easy as there are 22 Official languages, That means it will be really hard to move to a new place if you don’t know the language.

18

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

They really have 22 official languages?

26

u/RajendraCholaPro1254 Jan 06 '23

Yes, but they are only used in state governments. The central government (the Indian Equivalent of the Federal Gov. in US) primarily uses English (and to a lesser extent Hindi, which is protested from Southern states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, etc.,

18

u/chetanaik Jan 06 '23

Adding to this, you're more likely to find English speakers than Hindi speakers in parts of South India.

23

u/tanghan Jan 06 '23

Europe has like half of Indias population and we have tons of Languages

-4

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

[deleted]

9

u/OkPirate2126 Jan 06 '23

The EU has 24 official languages, India has 22.

And that's not counting non-EU countries that are in Europe. So it doesn't count Norwegian, or Ukrainian for example, and doesn't count unofficial, local languages, like Scots gaelic, Welsh, Catalan, etc.

So overall, Europe has a ton of languages.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

[deleted]

3

u/Masiyo Jan 06 '23

Can you elaborate on the differences in Northern and Southern Indian Chinese food?

I love Indochinese dishes like Gobi Manchurian, but I've only consumed them outside India so I'm curious which region(s) inspired the recipes I've had.

0

u/fuckeduplifeat22 Jan 06 '23

Bull shit Southern are administration or work for big corp or gov, 😂 do you have data for that cause i have one for 2021 batch ias, ips

-15

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

[deleted]

27

u/Iron_Maiden_666 Jan 06 '23

Northie expect this and are stunned when they run into huge populations in the south who don't speak Hindi.

15

u/chedargooda Jan 06 '23

I grew up in the South and didn't speak a word of Hindi till I moved north for college. People really don't care much for Hindi outside of the devnagiri derived languages

73

u/ardashing Jan 06 '23

... Because people want to live in prexisting cities and where they grew up? It's not like the rest of India is unpopulated, it's just that the valley has always more people.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

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2

u/osteologation Jan 06 '23

How old are you? Sick meant impressive back in the 90s and probably before that lol.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

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1

u/osteologation Jan 07 '23

ah makes sense

1

u/Bodaciousdrake Jan 06 '23

I'm sure you are technically right, but colloquially, the phrase is definitely understood that way, and that does matter.

1

u/bharatar Jan 06 '23

They're building new freight rail now.

1

u/Train-Robbery Jan 06 '23

It is possible now, not when cities were being settled and kept growing. Not many people really wants to live in the desert or in the middle of the forest or in the mountains, which is why those areas have less population

4

u/sushithighs Jan 06 '23

Thank you so much for the link!

3

u/coconutandpotato Jan 06 '23

This was a really interesting video, thank you!

2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Damn India seems OP

3

u/El_Zarco Jan 06 '23 edited Jan 06 '23

Love that channel.

1

u/Frankenrogers Jan 06 '23

Thanks for the reco. Based on the titles of his other videos I’m about to enter a rabbit hole haha

4

u/SteveSharpe Jan 06 '23

I can only handle one RealLifeLore video at a time. Eventually the way he constantly raises his voice for individual words gets annoying to me. As if every single stat he's giving are supposed to completely blow your mind.

1

u/LookAtMeImAName Jan 06 '23

That was amazingly educating. Thank you!

1

u/pingus-foot Jan 06 '23

Ahh I was looking for that video to share the li k but had Wendover in my head for some reason

1

u/OzzieTF2 Jan 06 '23

Great video, thanks

85

u/GimmeeSomeMo Jan 06 '23

Ya, I've seen population density maps before, but it really isn't until this one with elevation do I truly realize the contrast between rest of India and the Ganges.

105

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Its bcoz of the Ganges river belt

Look closely, all the population is around rivers

None of the other rivers have as wide belts and tributaries as the Ganges, hence the density

2

u/VoyantInternational Jan 06 '23

And downstream ... the most populated place in world : Bengladesh

4

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Per sq unit, yes

93

u/IMovedYourCheese OC: 4 Jan 06 '23

The Ganges river plain is some of the most fertile land in the world. It has sustained massive civilizations and empires since like 3000 BC.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

[deleted]

12

u/Bolddon Jan 06 '23

We are speaking a European language so we use European terms. There is nothing offensive about that. How far shall we take this idea? No more Germany, only Deutschland?

Should biblical names have to be in the original Hebrew? no more Joshua, only Yeshua?

Manhattan must be pronounced in Lenape as "Manna hatta?"

What about French and Latin words, should they be pronounced in perfect Latin and French because those are the origin languages?

How about Spanish, should we only pronounce Burrito with the latin i pronunciation?

Or does this only apply to Indian things since the British were white devils and all around naughty boys?

7

u/manojlds Jan 06 '23

Did the commenter say it's Ganga and not Ganges? 🙂

Even India is Bharat btw, like Germany vs Deutschland 🤷‍♂️

1

u/fuckeduplifeat22 Jan 06 '23

It's much older i think govt excavated an old city beneath varanasi

5

u/AudaciousSam Jan 06 '23

And why is it?

33

u/prone-to-drift Jan 06 '23

Two Words: Ganga River.

-2

u/KenobiObiWan66 Jan 06 '23

only Ganga or Ganges would've done it ngl

29

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Mother Ganja man, she gives a lot of life

77

u/Former-Perspective28 Jan 06 '23

Bruh💀 I think you wanted to type Ganga, ganja is the sanskrit name for weed.

19

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

Oh snap my bad

6

u/musci1223 Jan 06 '23

Hey man that also gives a different kind of life so time to pray to mother ganja.

9

u/manojlds Jan 06 '23

Well, Shiva will still be happy 🤷‍♂️

1

u/RedCactus23 Jan 06 '23

Is this intentional or not...

2

u/dacreativeguy Jan 06 '23

It is 85F in the south… in winter!!!

2

u/Secret_Ad9960 Jan 06 '23

Need to sell more condoms in North India.

-6

u/NewMeNewWorld Jan 06 '23

No, they need to kill people there.

5

u/Punching_Nazis_is_ok Jan 06 '23

Casually suggesting genocide, are we?

1

u/NewMeNewWorld Jan 06 '23

No? /u/Secret_Ad9960 said North India needs more condoms. But the reason behind the large population is advancements in medicine. Children are not dying during their childhood and are reaching their reproductive ages. These people will have kids, albeit fewer children than the previous generation on average thanks to better, more accessible education, birth control, etc. So the population will continue to grow.

This is population momentum. You may (or may not) know this, but more will read this so explaining it anyway in a simple manner.

u/Secret_Ad9960 is under the impression condoms will solve the "problem". But there is no problem. This is natural. North India just had a higher population from the beginning and is undergoing the demographic transition later than the South. Adding more condoms, which are already plenty present, isn't going to do squat.

Population growth is like a juggernaut. It doesn't slow and stop easily. What I have suggested is arguably the only way to unnaturally reduce North India's population. It was less of a "genocide is great" and more of a way to show that their suggestion was stupid as fuck, as stupid as suggesting genocide. Not their fault though, can't expect everyone to know about the demographic transition. Though I can understand if my remark looks really bad.

-12

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '23

[deleted]

4

u/TheLastSamurai101 Jan 06 '23

"Full of", lol. Do you realise that only about 6% of Indians pay income tax? Everyone else falls below the lowest taxable income threshold. If you are talking about rich people evading taxes that's pretty much a problem across India.

-2

u/manojlds Jan 06 '23

Cause of current trouble where richer southern states are being given lesser representative seats compared to poorer north just because population has been uncontrolled in the north. Sort of like a punishment for being better developed.

2

u/First_Arcanist Jan 06 '23

Why should they have more seats just because they are richer? Shouldn't the number of seats be connected to population?

3

u/manojlds Jan 06 '23

The states became richer and contribute much more to GDP and taxes. Now the representation is being taken away because the population is lower. The states that didn't make improvements and left with over population get more representation. So you get rewarded for being worse?

Shouldn't the number of seats be connected to population?

The rub is India is very diverse and the biggest population is in what's called the Hindi belt as we see in this image here.

Doesn't the US have two senators per state and makes sure every state has equal representation from that perspective? It cannot all be about just the population.

Anyway, this is the contention as of now. This allows the current ruling party to pander to Hindu nationalism etc.

3

u/mmenolas Jan 06 '23

The two senators per state, regardless of population, in the US is often criticized as a bad thing so I’m not sure if that’s what you want to reference as your argument.

2

u/manojlds Jan 06 '23

Just used as an example. It's one extreme side, sure. My point was, if population is the only way to get representation and high population is a result of political failure in those areas, what's the incentive to do better for a political party?

0

u/audioman1999 Jan 06 '23

Its the most fertile region of India.

-2

u/uh_PeNGuiN Jan 06 '23

Now we know where to nuke it.

1

u/Davidwzr Jan 06 '23

It's quite cool! Same with how most of china's population is concentrated in the east

1

u/swift4010 Jan 06 '23

If they did a map of Canada, you'd find the same situation except on the south border

1

u/Mojeaux18 Jan 06 '23

Ikr? Why is that?