January 30th, 2012

You Can Fit the World’s Population on Vancouver Island

by Alex Hallatt

Yes, I worked this out. I assumed that each person would need at least a metre squared to stand on. 7 billion square metres is the same as 7,000 square kilometres (1000 m x 1000m). I then did a search to find islands bigger than 7000 sq km. I would have dearly loved to use one of the Falkland Islands, but I’m not sure they are as well known as in Margaret Thatcher’s era…So I went for Vancouver Island, instead – a little roomier at over 30,000 sq km.