How do you calculate population density if given population and area?

• A. Population density = area ÷ population.
• B. Population density = population ÷ area.
• C. Population density = population × area.
• D. Population density = population + area.

Answer: (B)

Population density tells you how many people live in each unit of area. To get it, you divide the total population by the land area. This yields the number of people per square kilometer (or per square mile, depending on the area unit you use).

For example, if 10,000 people live in 2 square kilometers, the density is 10,000 ÷ 2 = 5,000 people per square kilometer.

The other formulas don’t measure how crowded an area is: area divided by population would give area per person, which is the inverse idea; multiplying or adding population and area doesn’t produce a meaningful density unit.