Is Gaza one of the densest places on earth?

I wish I had kept count of the number of times in the last month I have read or heard that “Gaza is one of the densest places on earth”. This statement is usually made without any context whatsoever. (I heard one person on BBC cite an actual figure, but not how it compares to anywhere else.) So is Gaza one of the densest places on earth?

Of course, the answer depends on your definition of “place”. That is, compared to what? The table below compares the Gaza Strip first to several other enclaves, exclaves, or small territories, which would seem to be a relevant comparison group. Then it compares Gaza City itself to several other major urban areas, including a few in the Middle East. While the list of ex/enclaves may be close to exhaustive, obviously the second one is not.

Entity	area, km^2	pop, millions	pop dens
Singapore	743.30	5.31	7,146.51
Melilla	12.30	0.08	6,504.07
Macau	115.30	0.61	5,325.24
Gaza Strip	360.00	1.82	5,044.44
Ceuta	18.50	0.08	4,540.54
Gibraltar	6.80	0.03	4,411.76
Hong Kong	2,754.97	7.16	2,597.12
City (selected)	area, km^2	pop, millions	pop dens
Mumbai	603.40	12.48	20,679.48
Manhattan	87.00	1.62	18,609.20
Gaza City	45.00	0.52	11,444.44
Baghdad	673.00	7.22	10,722.14
Tel Aviv	52.00	0.42	7,980.77
Cairo	2,734.00	10.23	3,741.77

The claim appears somewhat exaggerated when we situate it in comparative context. In area, the Gaza Strip is about half the size of Singapore or double that of Macau. Singapore and Macau, along with Melilla, are more densely populated; in fact (as of 2014–see update below), Singapore has roughly two thousand more people per square kilometer. So is Gaza one of the most densely populated small territorial entities on earth? Arguably, yes, for the simple reason that there are few such entities, which in turn tend to be urban. It is not so unusual among these entities, however.

So maybe commentators who make this remark mean urban areas in the Gaza Strip compared to urban areas elsewhere. (I do not think they mean this, because the references always just say “Gaza” in a context that seems to mean the territorial exclave, not a specific city within it, but for the sake of argument…) Based on the second set of comparisons this certainly looks hard to sustain. Yes, 11 thousand people per square kilometers is dense, but Gaza City is no Mumbai or Manhattan.

I am not attempting to make a political point here (I know, hard to believe!). In fact, I have heard apologists for both Hamas tactics and Israel’s actions make the claim. As, in “How can Hamas not operate among civilians when Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth?” Or “How can Israel avoid killing civilians when Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth?”

To be fair, there are specific places within Gaza that are incredibly dense. And some of these are indeed places where Hamas is active, and thus so are they places that the IDF hits hard. For instance, Jabalia has over 80,000 people in 1.4 sq. km. But again, the media comments I have read and heard do not say “Jabalia is one of the densest places on earth” (and I do not have any idea how it would actually compare with similarly geographically compact locations). They say “Gaza” is. Evidently not.

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**2024 update. I corrected the above table as I had inadvertently entered incorrect areas for some territories. I also want to add here that the density for Hong Kong seems low and that is because the territory includes some substantial low-density areas. If one were to look solely at Kowloon, which is the most urbanized sub-territory of Hong Kong, the population density there is over 41,000 per square kilometer. Again, the bigger point is that the answer to the question posed in the title depends on how we define “place” and many places are indeed far more dense than the Gaza Strip, even if as noted, there are specific areas of some cities in the Gaza Strip that are indeed highly dense.

Below is an updated version, almost ten years after original posting. Of course, the Gaza Strip has increased in population and now has a density that is only about 1,300 people per square kilometer less than Singapore. Others have increased population as well, but not as rapidly. (For Mumbai, I did not located an updated population.)

Entity	area, km^2	pop, millions	pop dens
Singapore	743.3	5.918	7,961.79
Melilla	12.3	0.086	6,991.87
Gaza Strip	360	2.376	6,600.00
Macau	115.3	0.673	5,836.95
Ceuta	18.5	0.085	4,594.59
Gibraltar	6.8	0.03	4,411.76
Hong Kong	2754.97	7.498	2,721.63
City (selected)	area, km^2	pop, millions	pop dens
Kowloon	49	2.019	41,204.08
Mumbai	603.40	12.478	20,679.48
Manhattan	87.00	1.694	19,471.26
Gaza City	45.00	0.59	13,111.11
Baghdad	673.00	8.127	12,075.78
Tel Aviv	52.00	0.474	9,115.38
Cairo	2,734.00	10.1	3,694.22

Also, apparently Jabalia now (or, rather before the current war) has over 170,00 residents.