10 Most Crowded Islands of the World
Human beings are an amazing species. Given enough time, they will multiply, relocate and establish even on the most remote corners of the world.
The following islands, I’m sure, were once uninhabited full of lush
green forest, beautiful beaches and perhaps an animal or two. Today,
entire cities stands on them. But unlike communities on mainland, land
and resources on an island are scarce. With no space to grow
geographically these islands are crushingly dense with people and
housing.
Here is a collection of some of the most populous island in the world.
Santa Cruz del Islote
Santa
Cruz del Islote is unofficially the world’s most crowded island. It can
be reached by an hour’s boatride from Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It
has some 90 houses and a population of around 700 people, which can rise
to 1200 when the children who attend secondary school on the mainland
visit their families.
Santa Cruz is surrounded by idyllic
waters, but there is no beach, no swimming pools or hotels. The
islanders bury their dead in a nearby island because there is no space
for a cemetery. They play football on the neighboring Mucura key,
because the only public square on Santa Cruz is about half the size of a
tennis court.
There is currently no electricity on Santa Cruz.
The Colombian navy ships brings drinking water to the island, once every
three weeks, but that’s not enough for the impoverished population.
Women wash the clothes with salty water from a nearby well. And men
settle for doing most of their necessities on the surrounding sea.
Despite
these troubles, Santa Cruz is a peaceful island-village. There are no
locked doors here, and at night, dozens of people gather in their
neighbors homes to watch popular soap operas.
Hong Kong
The
Hong Kong Island has a population of 1.2 million at a density of
16,390/km², as of 2008. The population is heavily concentrated along the
northern shore where the density is 26,000 per km².
The island
had a population of 3,000 inhabitants scattered in a dozen fishing
villages when it was occupied by the United Kingdom in the First Opium
War in 1842. The island is home to many of the most famous sights in
Hong Kong, such as "The Peak", Ocean Park, many historical sites and
various large shopping centers. The mountain ranges across the island
are also famous for hiking.
Manhattan
Manhattan,
an island at the mouth of the Hudson River, is the most densely
populated and the oldest of the five boroughs of New York City. With a
population of 1.58 million there are 26,924 residents per km², more
dense than any individual American city. Manhattan is the third-largest
of New York's five boroughs in population, but the smallest borough in
land area.
Manhattan is the major commercial, financial, and
cultural center of the United States. Anchored by Wall Street in Lower
Manhattan, New York City functions as the financial capital of the
world, with an estimated GDP of over 1.2 trillion and is home of both
the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Many major radio, television,
and telecommunications companies in the United States are based here, as
well as many news, magazine, book, and other media publishers. It is
also the location of the United Nations Headquarters.
Salsette Island
Salsette
Island is located in the Arabian Sea on India's west coast. The
metropolis of Mumbai, the city of Thane and Mira-Bhayandar lie on this
island, making it a very populous island and one of the most densely
populated island in the world. It has about 15.1 million inhabitants
living on an area of about 619 km² amounting to a population density of
24,414 /km2.
The island has been inhabited since the Stone Age.
The Kolis, a fishing community, were the earliest known settlers of the
islands. The Maurya Empire gained control of the islands during the 3rd
century BCE, and transformed it into a centre of Hindu and Buddhist
culture and religion. The island came under the control of several
successive indigenous dynasties before landing in the hands of the
British in the 18th century. By that time the island, particularly the
city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), had become an important trading
center.
Railway viaducts and road bridges were built in the
19th century to connect Bombay Island to Salsette Island, and Salsette
Island to the mainland. These railway lines encouraged wealthier
merchants to build villas on Salsette Island, and by 1901 the population
of this Island was 146,993, and became known as Greater Bombay.
Venice
Venice
in northeast Italy is situated on a group of 118 small islands
separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy
Venetian Lagoon which stretches along the shoreline between the mouths
of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its
setting, its architecture and its artworks. It was a major power during
the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades
and the Battle of Lepanto, as well as a very important center of
commerce and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th century.
In 2009, there were 270,098 people residing in Venice.
Fadiouth
Joal-Fadiouth
is a village at the end of the Petite Côte of Senegal, south-east of
Dakar. Joal lies on the mainland, while Fadiouth, linked by a bridge,
lies on an island of clam shells, which are also used in local
architecture and crafts. The village has no motorised transport
evidenced by the sign on entering.
The major economic
activities for the villagers of Fadiouth are fishing and rice
cultivation. Since the town is located in a large river delta, farmers
have taken advantage of the shallow flood plain caused by the river to
grow rice in the area.
The island is home to some 39 thousand residents according to the census of 2007.
Malé
Located
at the southern edge of North Malé Atoll, Malé is the capital and most
populous city in the Republic of Maldives. The central island is heavily
urbanized, with the built-up area taking up essentially its entire
landmass. Slightly less than one third of the nation's population lives
in the capital city, and the population has increased from 20,000 people
in 1987 to 100,000 people in 2006. Many, if not most, Maldivians and
foreign workers in Maldives find themselves in occasional short term
residence on the island since it is the only entry point to the nation
and the centre of all administration and bureaucracy.In recent years,
the island has been considerably expanded through landfilling
operations.
Ebeye
Ebeye
is the most populous island of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands,
as well as the center for Marshallese culture in the Ralik Chain of the
archipelago. Settled on 80 acres (360,000 m²) of land, it has a
population of more than 15,000. Over 50% of the population is estimated
to be under the age of 18.
Some of the residents of Ebeye are
refugees or descendants of refugees from the effects of the cataclysmic
15-megaton Castle Bravo nuclear test at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954.
The detonation unexpectedly rained nuclear fallout and two inches of
radioactive snow on nearby Rongelap Atoll, which had not been evacuated
as had Bikini. The 1954 American authorities then evacuated Rongelap and
were returned in 1957 with extensive medical surveillance. In 1985,
Greenpeace evacuated the inhabitants of Rongelap to Mejato (island in
Kwajalein atoll). Ebeye was the final destination for many of them.
Vasilyevsky Island
Vasilyevsky
Island is located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, bordered by the rivers
Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva (in the delta of the Neva River) in the
south and northeast, and by the Gulf of Finland in the west. Vasilyevsky
Island is separated from Dekabristov Island by the Smolenka River.
Together they form the territory of Vasileostrovsky District, an
administrative subdivision of Saint Petersburg. The island has a
population of 203,181 as of 2002.
Situated just across the river
from the Winter Palace, it constitutes a large portion of the city's
historic center. Two of the most famous St Petersburg bridges, Palace
Bridge and Blagoveshchensky Bridge, connect it with the mainland to the
south. The Exchange Bridge and Tuchkov Bridge across Malaya Neva connect
it with Petrogradsky Island. Vasilyevsky Island is served by
Vasileostrovskaya and Primorskaya stations of Saint Petersburg Metro
(Line 3 ). There are also tramway lines.
Geographically, the
island consists of two main parts. The south and east of the island are
old, with buildings mostly from the 19th century. The southern
embankment has some of the oldest buildings in the city dated from 18th
century. That part of the island is notable for its rectangular grid of
streets originally intended to be canals, like in Venice. Numerous
museums and cathedrals makes Vasilyevsky Island a popular tourist
attraction.
Lübeck
The
Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in
Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of
Germany. It was for several centuries the capital of the Hanseatic
League ("Queen of the Hanse") and, because of its Brick Gothic
architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. In
2005 it had a population of 213,983.
