Nobody Lives Here

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

According to the Nature Conservancy research, just 5% of the global landmass, excluding Antarctica, is untouched by human activity.

The maps below show the “wildest” places on our planet earth.

World areas where nobody lives

This map created by Helen McKenzie reveals the areas of the world with less than one person per square kilometer.

Below are maps of Canada, the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and New Zealand with no people living within one square kilometer.

Americas

Canada

United States

Approximately 40 % of the U.S. population lives in counties on the shore.

Brasil

The orange area is made of 1km2 tiles in which the resident population is null. The data comes from the 2010 Demographic Census Statistical Grid, the smallest area unity made available to the public by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

In 2010, 13.566.488 tiles were surveyed. The reported population in 10.902.382 of them was … zero. This corresponds to 6,8 million km2, roughly 80% of the whole national territory. So, despite its enormous population of 207.7 million, most of Brazil’s territory remains uninhabited.

Does that mean that Brazil’s territory is wilderness for the most part?
Definitely no. Yes, many of those tiles cover natural areas, in the Amazon forest, the Pantanal, the pampa, some in protected areas. Nonetheless, uninhabited is not the same as undeveloped nor unexplored.

Much of these uninhabited areas are made up of farmland, commercial and industrial estates, military installations, traffic infrastructure, and other areas where plenty of people pass through – but where nobody actually lives…

Euroasia

United Kingdom

Areas that are more than 1 km away from a road in Great Britain

France

Netherlands

The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries globally, with a population density of 488 people per square km (1,080 people/sq mile)/ But even with such a high density, there are still places where no one lives. The map below shows all squares (500x500m) in the Netherlands with less than 5 inhabitants in green and all squares with 5 or more white inhabitants. Many of the green areas are nature reserves or regions otherwise unsuitable for habitation.

Norway

Green blocks of 25km2 on the map below show Norwegian areas where nobody lives.

Finland

Oceania

New Zealand

World areas with no direct pressures of human activities

Human influence is so strong that even many areas where humans do not live bear traces of human activity. And nowadays, we can estimate the human footprint using satellite data. Cédric Scherer created the map of regions with no direct pressures of human activities on nature or a very low human footprint index below one on a 10 x 10km grid.