The population Asia rose from (1895) 830 million, (1925) 1,020 million, (1960) 1,692 million, (1970) 2,148 million, (1985) 2,901 million, (2004) 3,894 million (2016) 4,463 million. The most populous countries are the People’s Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan. Especially in the People’s Republic of China, the most populous country on earth (2016: 1,379 million residents compared to 1949: 541 million residents), the government tried to do so from the mid-1950s and repeatedly from the early 1960s and 1970s Reduce population growth through strict legal regulations. Above all, this included the implementation of »one-child marriage«, from which only the national minorities were excluded. As a result, the population growth rate fell from (1990) 1.48% to (2017) 0.41%, so that at the end of 2015 China abandoned the »one-child policy«. India too, The country with the second largest population (2016: 1.32 billion residents) is trying to control population growth, but is growing much faster than China with a growth rate of (2017) 1.17%. Efforts to reduce population growth are also being made in Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and against the opposition of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. The population growth rate is rapidly increasing in most of the Islamic countries in Asia, especially in Qatar, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. are also undertaken in Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and against the opposition of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. The population growth rate is rapidly increasing in most of the Islamic countries in Asia, especially in Qatar, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. are also undertaken in Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and against the opposition of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. The population growth rate is rapidly increasing in most of the Islamic countries in Asia, especially in Qatar, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.
The spatial distribution of the population is very different. The population density for the entire continent (2016) is 100 residents per km 2. Huge spaces in the cold north of Siberia, in the arid regions of the Middle East, West and Central Asia (Mongolia: 2 residents per km 2) and the high mountains are almost deserted. Other areas – such as the fertile river landscapes (e.g. the delta regions of the Red River or the Mekong) or regions in Japan – have population densities of over 1,000 residents per km 2. Java (Indonesia) is with over 3,000 residents per km 2one of the most densely populated islands in the world. Here 60% of the Indonesian population is concentrated on only 7% of the national territory. The rural exodus, which continues to this day, has swelled some coastal cities into huge metropolitan areas with several million residents (e.g. Shanghai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Jakarta).
Wars and political unrest have great population movements caused. After the partition of India, Pakistan took in 9 million Muslim refugees from this country and India more than 9 million Hindus from Pakistan. Over 1 million people were killed in unrest. The establishment of the State of Israel resulted in increased immigration from Europe, America and above all from Africa and Asia, on the other hand Arabs fled Israel. Since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, over 1.34 million people emigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union or later CIS until 2003. As a result of the Vietnam War and the socialist transformation of South Vietnam, many Vietnamese have left the country. Today around 4 million Vietnamese live abroad (especially in the USA, Cambodia and France). As a result of the war in Afghanistan, around 5.5 million people fled. People mainly in the border area of neighboring Pakistan and Iran. Already in earlier centuries there were migrations of Chinese, who today form strong minorities on the Malay Peninsula as well as in Thailand and Indonesia as well as the majority in Singapore. A large number of Indians were taken to other areas as coolies during British colonial rule, e.g. B. to Burma (Myanmar) for rice cultivation and Tamils to Ceylon (today Sri Lanka) for tea cultivation. The minority problem in many South and Southeast Asian countries has its roots here in part. Recently, the civil war in Syria has sparked large numbers of refugees.
West Asia
West | Asi | s, Front | Asi | s, subcontinent in Southwest Asia; includes Asia Minor, Caucasus, the highlands of Armenia and Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, the Arab and Sinai Peninsula; around 7 million km 2. According to Countryaah, West Asia includes Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Iran, also in the Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, on the Arabian Peninsula Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, in Persian Gulf of the island nation of Bahrain. Afghanistan lies in the transition area to Central Asia. The surface is characterized by the tertiary fold mountain system of Anatolia and Iran, to which the Caucasus rises up to 5,642 m above sea level with the Elbrus in the north and the poorly indented block of the Arabian Peninsula in the south. The largest island is Cyprus. There is a predominantly dry trade wind climate. Steppes, desert steppes and deserts predominate. - To the prehistory of the Middle East, to History of Asia, the history of the individual states as well as Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula.
