Why This Tiny Island Has More People Than Russia 

Lived on Java for two years. The smallest 'town' I lived in had 1 million people. I also ate rice with every meal. When I moved back to the US I couldn't understand how empty everything felt and even said it didn't 'look complete.' I also was very timid to start driving on American highways again because I truly could not comprehend the speeds. Even now, over 5 years later, when I go to "big cities" like Houston or even Paris I'm wondering where all the people are. Edit: ❤ Indonesia, debar jantungku

As an Indonesian myself, the thought of seeing Java having a very large population with limited land mass is mindboggling enough, until I look up India and they even have one state (Uttar Pradesh) that almost make up the entire population of Indonesia.

As a Javanese and have been living in Yogyakarta for 6 years, I took all these things for granted. I have never thought volcanoes are so important to our lives. But it changed after I watched this.

Java is awesome. Yogyakarta is one of my favorite cities. Jakarta is populous but honestly doesn’t feel crowded at all. Indonesians are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Recommend visiting Indonesia to anyone.

The bizarre population densities in some parts of the Indian subcontinent and the East Indies are truely unbelievable

There was a centralisation policy during Soeharto era (1960s to 1990s). During that time, most of Indonesian resources went to Java. Therefore, almost all nation developments only happened in Java. This propelled people movement from less developed islands in Indonesia to Java. The effects of this policy still can be feel even today. Most of Indonesia infrastructure are located in Java whereas other islands like Papua etc has less developed infrastructure.

I’m half javanese and grew up split between Surakarta and Australia. And the density difference is wild. Traffic is insane, public events are packed but despite that i still loved Indonesia. Neighbours were like family- in australia i barely know my neighbours and i’ve lived on the same street for twenty years. Little warungs (cafes) everywhere in indo - in australia i need to drive to get food. One of the biggest things i found is the fact that all the towns and cities run into each other indo but in Western Australia (my home state) you can drive for five hours and see nothing

I'm from central Europe and I lived in Jakarta/Indonesia for 4 years. I've been around Java Island a bit like Jogja but also visited other Islands like Sumatra. I have to say, in terms of culture & language it is almost like a different country. As a matter of fact not everyone speaks Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia) fluently. For instance, a Javanese wouldn't understand what a Sundanese is saying (unless both would be speaking bahasa Indonesia & not their own languages). I also picked up batak language from North Sumatra, nobody in the capital city would ever understand and vice versa.

1. rice 2. volcanoes 3. Java was not a urban civilization, and since the transition of a country going from rural to urban involves the introduction of revolutionary technology (vaccines, fertilizer) the population growth will increase tremendously during the transition period, but growth will permanently slow down. This also explains as to why Japan has less people than Java today. Japan became a urban country much earlier than Java, meaning it didn't have as good as technology Java had access to in the beggining of it's urbanization. 4. equatorial climate

The sound of Krakatoa stopped being audible at that distance, but the pressure wave continued at the speed of sound and was detectable by weather stations around the world- repeatedly, because the pressure wave circled the entire globe at least once.

I can't believe how well-researched your videos are. That's why I prefer your content over competition. You knock them out of the park by a long shot!

Went to Belitung last week (and my first time to visit Sumateran's area). Never, never in my life, saw such peace across the island of Belitung. Soooo few people, it was even fewer than rural area of Java, even though they had same vibes....

As a sumatran (java neighbor island) that recently visited java for holiday, you literally will and will always see people everywhere you go 😂, but it's not really a problem though because javanese are incredibly nice people and the foods there are incredibly cheap.. Also the infrastructure in java is more advanced than any other island in indonesia so that's why we non javanese sometimes feel jealous but thanks to the current government they boost up the infrastructures to all places in indonesia

As a civ6 player this is totally understandable. With that many volcanos, the lands would have absurdly high food production. Each eruption might kill a few, but they grow back in a few turns.

Your narrations dynamic is very engaging and factual. The educational and informative value is immense, specially for me, an history and geography buff. I wish these "trivial" topics would be shown to students in the school system. Knowledge is power.

It should also be mentioned that Borneo and New Guinea have a great portion of natural untouched forests, so yes they are less "productive" in comparison to Java regarding their size, but that's not necessarily a bad thing

I live in Bandung, the capital of West Java and several months ago I visited the island of Sumatra, Padang City to be exact. And I saw HUGE differences between two of the major island. In sumatra, the roads are less clogged by the traffic. Compared to my hometown, it was normal for people to drive or ride their motorbike at around 60-70 km per hour, which you can’t achieve that kind of speed in Java because of the traffic. And also in West Sumatra is more sparsely populated so you still can see lots of dense forests across the Province. Secondly, the rice is also feels different, in Java the rice feels more “sticky” or as we Sundanese people of West Java call it as “Pulen”. Compared to the ones in Sumatra which happen to be more “scattered” but the rice went SO GOOD with their Minangkabau Cuisine. Indonesian Islands are full of surprises. It just feels like you’re in completely different country even if you only visit other islands or cities.

Saying Java as a tiny island is such an understatement in my opinion. Yes, it is smaller than other big islands in Indonesia. But Java itself sitting at 13 largest island in the world. It looks smaller because it is on equator which is the disadvantage of Mercator projection. The living condition is not cramped as how u imagine Hongkong (except for some big cities such as Jakarta). We still have forest here.

Always interesting, thank you.

I remember having an American online friend that visited Indonesia (Bandung my hometown especially), i will always find it funny how he freaks out that every food contains rice as the main dish 😂

Believe me if you live in or travel to the island of Java, you’ll certainly not feel that it is a tiny island. It’s bigger and wider than it looks.

I asked this exact question on Reddit a while back and got very little and disappointing responses. The question really bothered me for a while. So to have one of my favorite RU-vidrs answer it in detail is quite the blessing.

This channels explanation is always so spot on and interesting

Much more astonishing than this is the fact that metropolitan Tokyo has the same population as Canada.

I was born and raised in Java island. I remember accepting an exchange student twice. One from Poland and the other from Ghana. And both say that my home city was bigger than his capital. Something i lauded off given that my home city wasn't even considered a proper city (i live in Depok, basically equivalent of America's Harlem district. Part of New york but not really part of it)

I like Javanese people, the hospitality, they are very welcoming and friendly. The landscapes, volcanoes, beaches, waterfalls and everything else on the Java is absolutely phenomenal. I really want to go back to visit Mount Ijen once again.

I lived in Jakarta as kid for 4 years because my dad was transferred there. On e of our many awesome holidays in Indonesia sticks out to me as an adult--a week staying in rustic beach huts on islands just off the north coast of Java. Getting up every morning and spending the entire day playing in the ocean with massive Krakatoa looing on the horizon. Beach sands black as coal from that last devastating eruption. As a kid, the fear of an eruption was very exciting. Didn't appreciate it at the time, but now one of my bets memories.

I'm from Java. Thank you for the great explanation.

You forgot to mention one of the most important reason why Java has a lot of people beside the fertile land and large erable land. Java was a hot mess for a long time. There was non stop war just like pre-tokugawa era in Japan. There will always war of successions, and kingdom expansion. But still, Java produces rice in large quantities which they export it to many places in the archipelago. Even when Dutch started to get control. The last big war in Java (before world war ii) is Java war or Perang Diponegoro (1825-1830). After that, Java become relatively peaceful so citizens doesn't require to go to war. The Dutch colonial government become more powerful. The population then skyrocketed and it grow until now. The agriculture expansion also has some effect too. In 19th century, there are many forest opened for agriculture. They grew export crops for Europe market like indigo, tea, coffee, and the most important before the great depression is sugar cane. Since there are more land opened, more people spawned. Java was once filled with lots of rainforest now only few of them survive.

I can't imagine what the area looked like during prehistory when most of the islands were connected and above water, and undoubtedly had many rivers spreading the nutrients and minerals further. I believe we have a lost chapter of humanity under the shallow waters around Indonesia

I born and stay in java. Cimahi-Bandung west java. So happy to life here. So much people to meet

I have always wondered about this, thanks for asnwering this question.

1816 is called The Year Without Summer. During a disappointing, from the horrid weather, summer stay in Switzerland, Lord Byron issues a challenge to his entourage to write scary stories. Out of that challenge came Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and "The Vampyre" by Polynari, Byron's physician.

Java really isn’t that small, it is just on the equator. All of Indonesia is insanely big. From east to west larger than europe (although not in total landmass)

Fantastic video !

I'm from Malaysia, and I love Java. Been there few times.

Indonesian history is so interesting! My mother is from the Philippines, which "benefits" from many of the same factors you cite here. Both countries are incredibly populated. The Philippines is the size of Nevada, which has a population of about 4 million people, while the Philippines has about 120 million. Java is the same size as New York state, which has 20 million people, about 120 million less than Java. Both Indonesia and the Philippines are megadiverse countries, meaning the biodiversity in both nations are extremely high. Indonesia has many more species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish than the entire United States, which is about 7 times as large. Both countries are currently experiencing deforestation on a massive scale, and with Indonesia's capital moving to Borneo, it's almost certainly going to accelerate. The Bornean rainforest is the second oldest rainforest on Earth and is expected nearly disappear by 2100.

One of the most fascinating videos I've ever seen. I consider myself informed until I watch something like this and realize I don't know a damn thing. 79-year-old avocado farmer in Santa Barbara California.

as indonesian i think the most important reason is java's development so much way faster than the other island. Trade, financial sector, consumtion, education you named it and that makes thu city looked like the best option to find new opportunity thats way the island specially big cities in java dominated by non native javanese people

Damn deep one. Thank you for the intensive explanation, you know more than me

I’ve been to Java in 2007: went to Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Thought about all these things discussed in the video. It’s a very interesting place with interesting people.

Really enjoyed the video. I've visited numerous volcanoes on Java and Sumatra and find them fascinating. Mount Bromo is a highlight. It's incredible how geologically active the 2 islands are. New Zealand and Iceland are similar in some places. Mount Merapi is unfortunately not very accessible. Bandung offers a great starting point for exploring hot springs and Java's volcanic highlands.

I am one of Indonesian citizen. When sinabung erupted me and my family just 20-30 km away from sinabung we can Saw the dust comes out from the sinabung. And we still stay the night likes nothing happened.

Rice: Average global yield: Approximately 4-6 metric tons/hectare (depending on variety, climate, and management practices) Total protein yield per hectare: 280-480 kilograms Total carbohydrate yield per hectare: 1,120-1,800 kilograms Wheat: Average global yield: Approximately 2.5-4 metric tons/hectare (depending on variety, climate, and management practices) Total protein yield per hectare: 250-600 kilograms Total carbohydrate yield per hectare: 1,625-2,800 kilograms

I always wondered why Indonesia's population is so high for an island nation. No wonder, because it has great soil because of volcanoes, rain throughout the year, and lots of sun. Perfect conditions to grow food year round.

Short answer: Cold is more deadly than heat.

Ive been vising Java since 1976, and found this video very informative.

That's great! 11:20: Age of Empires graphics. :D You know, it's funny, the book recommended at the end. There was a time where i went to the library and I didn't want to look disinterested in taking out a book. So I went to look around and it just happens that I took out that very book! I wish I had read it, now! Maybe, I will.

As a someone living in java and never visit other islands except bali. I can imagine how dense java is. Went to various cities : jakarta (greater jakarta), bandung, semarang, surabaya, jogja, solo are quite dense city with hifh populated but rest is quite not as dense as i thought. So i cant imagine how empty Russia is for example

Anyone spotted him using a town center from Age of Empires 2 at 11:12 to present the rice vs wheat example? Clearly a man of culture.

I am Javanese, living in East Java. What is described in this video from one side may have a point. But actually there are many other factors that cause the island of Java to have a large population. One of them is culture. In Javanese culture in the past, having many children was something that was considered good. There is even a proverb in Javanese which reads: " Tambah anak ,Tambah rezeki " It means: "Many children, lots of fortune" So that in the past the average Javanese had many children. In ancient times, a husband and wife could have 7-10 children. Apart from that, Javanese people have the principle that no matter how many children they have, it will be very pleasant if they live near their parents. The ancient Javanese were not among the people who liked to migrate outside their area. In this Javanese proverb, it is expressed in terms of: "Mangan ora mangan sing penting kumpul " It means: "Eat or not eat, the important thing is family gathering"

Yep, can confirm. Each time right after Merapi erupted, agricultural market always goes boom, even though I don't live next to the mountain, but right between Merapi and Merbabu.

Thank you for making this excellent video, as always! Shout out from Yogyakarta, Java. I live around 30 miles from Mt. Merapi. When it had a small eruption in 2018 I lived around 10 miles away. Everything vibrates and the sound it made like a huge truck parked in your driveway. The ash column was towering high, and it was only a small eruption. 2010 eruption was way bigger. It might sound scary but we learnt to embrace living near the danger zone. Yes it's populous, yes it's seems tiny on the map. But there are many "empty" regions as well. Java is packed with volcanoes so it has the most fertile soil in the country, so it can support so many people. But modernization turned many agriculture land into other usages, like for property and industry, both are very lucrative money for investors . This and the growth of population (and maybe some bureaucratic factors) make Indonesia import rice to feed its huge population. Some region are planned to be the new agricultural powerhouses to supplement Java's production, albeit this was tried since decades ago. The Java-centric approach since colonization era until today can't help but bring Java into more prominence. To sum up why Java has so many people: great agriculture, center of government and politics, most development and industrialization, and most economic opportunities. But the carrying capacity of the island is well limited. This is why the current government is planning to move the capital into the island of Kalimantan (Borneo), among other solutions. Come and visit Java, the people are nice, rich of natural and cultural attractions, and the foods are good. PS: everything is kinda cheap here.

It's pretty inaccurate to show New Guinea as being completely Indonesian. Indonesia controls the western half of the island. One reason for Javas incredible population density is it's incredibly productive agricultural sector. Plus Java has long been the center of culture and power in the islands followed by Sumatra and Bali. But Java is really starting to push the limits of the population it can sustain in terms of clean water from what I understand. In comparision to US states by area Java is slightly smaller than North Carolina.

i'm Indonesian! seeing this and the comments here makes me happy... it's true how we were bassically colonized because of rich spices for countries that lack'em. the analysis in the video is kind of long... but it's very informative and interesting! i really like it alot.

one of the planting media traded in Indonesia is crushed lava rock, this planting media really makes potted plants fertile, such as bonsai and others. 😉😊

Glad you make a video about Indonesia again. Volcanoes for Indonesians is basically like Nile for Egyptians

OMG! I just finished a research essay about the Sunda region today and was so surprised about how populous the Java island is! What a coincidence this video came out!!

I would love to see Borobudur. First heard about in an undergraduate art history class and find it fascinating.

I live in many island in Indonesia for some years. Even java is the most populated island in Indonesia, I inherit a land that litterally located in a mountain. 29.000 square metres consist of forrest. Actually, my grand father owned the small mountain and his descendants now inherit all of that, including me. It's located in central javea and all of it are forrest (and my family intended to leave it as it is). So, yeah, eventhough there's more people in java than in russia, we still have many forrest too. In fact, if I want to go to my land, I'll need 4 hours travel by car and 2 hours travel motorcycle from the nearest small city.

Actually living in Yogakarta right now and today went up the nearby mountains near Merapi, its certainly a lush and beautiful place!

The thing about Java is that the population is not evenly divided throughout the island. In major cities the population is really high while in most rural areas you will encounter less people but more fields to farm.

Love for All from Nganjuk East Java 😘

Дуже цікаво, дякую за контент!

Borneo has three countries... 1. Kalimantan, Indonesia 2. Sabah & Sarawak, Malaysia 3. Brunei (a country)

Northern UK used to be a volcanic island, about half of Scotland, the northern part - you can see the diagonal straight line on a map, also goes along Loch Ness. It started off on the undersea North Atlantic volcanic trench, and moves eastwards through the ages. It is still moving east now, few millimetres a year, something like that. And it's altitude is rising too, recovering from the weight of the glaciers from the last ice age. All fascinating stuff. 👍

As Indonesian living in Surabaya, nation's second largest city located in East Java., I would add one more thing of negative aspect living in Java. That is the road conditions that makes up as one of the deadliest in the world to commute around. And it has statistics proof. Nevertheless last June I traveled to Yogyakarta with family for vacation and enjoyed it very much. As matter of fact we visited recreational spots around mount Merapi back then... 😆😆

I live in Java, this is happy and fertile Islands. Have skycrapper city Jakarta, tourist city Bandung and Yogyakarta. Closed to Bali and Sumatra and have direct border with Australia ocean teritory.

I am an Indonesian, live in Java Island, in Bandung city exactly. The part about the soil fertility is true. Even there's a joke here : if you put wooden stick in the soil, it will grow and become a tree. 😆

Wow, I watched it with bated breath. Thanks a million for your work and time you spend on making these marvelous videos. You've broadened my horizons about correlation between economy and climate etc.

There might be other additional factors. For example, in general: the more densely populated places on earth inhabited by the human, the smaller they are. The early agriculture/aquaculture practices as opposed to being the hunter-gatherer society is another, etc... So, it might not be just the physical/geographical factor alone, but a multitude of factors that resulting such a phenomenon as in the case of Java.

Is Java worth visiting? Im going to visit Yogyakarta, some vulcanls and a national park there in September. But as i see that it's so overpupalted, im a bit scared that its to much

I live in Java. It might look like this island is super crowded, but that's only true for large cities. In the rural areas, we still have plenty of rainforest, sprawling rice paddies, tea plantations, and pretty beaches

This video is the reason I always watch this channel. Very impressive on research and shows how interesting for the content. This channel alone is the reason why I wanted an account at Curiosity Stream

The aoe2 town centers soothed my soul in a way I never knew I needed. Sheeehoh

Not just Java's fertile soil, a lot of natural resources from other islands were brought to Java for development which only attracts more people from other islands and speeds up birth rate. In the past, people believe that the more kids you have the more fortune will come, therefore they try to make as much kids as they can.

I was wondering why Indonesia's best property labourer came from Java, east and west to be precise. You've just answered that mystery. They grow and eat the best rice since young, containing minerals straight from earth's core. They may be skinny, but they possess iron bones and wire muscle tissue. Serve them Bima's Nail (Kukubima), and your property project will be done with the highest quality.

As someone who hasn't been in school for 10 years and doesn't put much focus on education - i love watching your videos because I'm always learning something new, but in a format that works for my short, ever dwindling attention span!

NOW THAT EXPLAINS THE TRAFFIC JAM I GOTTA EXPERIENCE DAILY

indonesia: has the most volcanoes in the world also indonesia: is the 4th most populated nation, with its population mostly centered in the island with the most volcanoes yep, totally makes sense

11:15 I love how you use the civ6 icons for the crops. The way rivers and volcanoes (especially in Gathering Storm) has their dangers through disasters and benefits in population growth is blatantly mirrored there.

Very nice explaination as always... I live about 25 km from the peaks of Merapi volcano. Ever since i was born, we experienced many eruption from Merapi. 2010 is the worst for for us. First time ever our village must be evacuated. And about one week before the explosion begin, every single window in our home is shaking nonstop. Ground is rumbling, raining ashes... But our village is waaay more lucky than the other upper village near the peak. There are many many village missing, buried by the ashes. Many lives lost that day. My sincerest condolences for them all...

-Saya tinggal di jawa tengah,indonesia dan terima kasih atas penjelasnnya pak. -I live in central java,indonesia and thank you for your explanation sir.

all true. but at least in North Sumatra, they plant an improved more productive strain of rice that requires fertilizer and pesticides. Otherwise it's not economical. And rice is so plentiful, the price to the farmer is barely worth bothering to sell the rice to middlemen who transport it to the cities. Then while waiting for those 3 crops a year to mature, there's a ton of people that would be labelled anywhere else, tho there's always farm jobs to be done. And they gotta swap in a peanut crop periodically else the paddies get depleted. In recent times palm oil is more lucrative than rice, tho prefers a different (swampy) soil. So anywhere possible paddy becomes palm oil groves.

I've been to Java many times. Infact my profile picture is of Merapi and its adjacent sister volcano Merbabu. It's mind-boggling how many people are there when I visited Jakarta I was in awe of how big the city was. When it rains on java its like no other rain I've ever experienced, I thought being English meant I knew what rain was. I was very wrong 😅🙏

It's crazy. I live in Vladivostok, Russia. Our whole region (Primorsky Krai) is relatively small - only 166 000 sq. km. Population 1.8 million people. Java has 128 000 sq km (77% of Primorsky Krai) and population of 148 million people, more than my entire country!!!! That is insane. I guess we don't have warm weather (5 months of winter, ffs) and no volcanic soil :-))) Anyway, thanks for great video. And all the best to people of Java!

2:23 Hotel Kempinski! I went there before!

"Java is the main key" 🤓

I had a look on Google Earth and it seems that there's still plenty of open space with fields and forests as populated as Java is. The way the fields are divided along the coast looks like satellite imagery of the other former Dutch colony of Surinam in South America.

I never knew anything about this honestly. I'd just like to say how impressively complicated the World is and how every little detail about every island and territory matters so much, to so many different countries and people. It's crazy how those little seemingly irrelevant islands are potentially so important to some of the World's biggest powers.

Here everything is complete👌💯

Loved the AoE2 graphic!

I am learning Bahasa, I wish I could go to my favorite & most interesting country soon, but it's quite far & expensive if you live in the Netherlands. But hey, next year I will maybe try that! Hopefully im comfortable enough with bahasa by then:)

Pwning it lately. Nice work komrad. Real life lore? Please yes more!

11:12 I smiled with that image :D

greetings from jogja, indonesia. looking at mount merapi, just a shy 17km away while sipping my first black coffee for the morning. while its true, the land is really fertile here, like i could just eat a fruit keep the seed and just toss it to the dirt, few days later it would start to sprout. but its sad the current development starts to push upward to the north, more buildings are covering up the fertile land now compared to when i was a kid.

Java is much bigger than what you see on the map, calling it tiny is disservice to it's actual size, tiny is what you call the islands in the pacific, besides, Java is hella fertile and already have huge population since antiquity, even with the current population, You can still find many natural wonders, forrests, mountains, and even some natural parks, vast majority of the indonesian population including java are also living in the cities.

I’m a huge RLL fan and have been binging this channel lately- I was wondering if we could get to see a video about the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over their borders in the Arkstah region? Armenia has also experienced a huge influx of Russian immigrants seeking better economic prospects, I wonder how this social shift in addition to the war in Ukraine is effecting the well-being of both countries

rice sustains 3x what wheat does, but requires 4x the labour. doesn't add up to rice being any good

New Guinea isn't part of Indonesia. Only the western part of it is.