Not sure if this was just featured today or I just haven't noticed it in the past, but congrats on this feature (and the "Least Light Pollution one" as well)!
I wonder how sea area is factored in to the total area. I tried a bunch of small island states that are very densely populated if only land area is considered, but which are often very sparsely populated if you include coastal waters (and especially if one was to include EEZs, which clearly isn't the case for the source).
Wow. Funny how Trinidad and Barbados where the first Caribbean islands that came to mind ^^. Probably because they are the most common tourist destinations out of the smaller Caribbean islands
It's mostly densely populated, highly-developed countries that use a lot of electricity and have a highly urbanized population. There are quite a few countries from every continent that don't make the cut smaller than South Korea.
I teach geography and history. I use a night-time map of the world to discuss both population patterns/settlement and development. South Korean/North Korea is a good starting point - most gr 7/8s mistake it for an island given the darkness of North Korea. You can also see the linear patterns along the Nile and the Trans-Siberian (effect of water and transportation on settlement patterns). Development is shown by comparing the lights of highly populated Nigeria or Congo compared to Europe.
Nauru was once one of the richest countries in the world per capita, before they consumed all their natural resources and bankrupted. During that period it obviously got electrified. It is very tiny island, solid population density. Actually it makes a lot of sense.
I find Italy to be the most surprising, just given it's size in relation to the other countries on this list. Modern day Galileo would be disappointed in his telescope.
Could be using different types of streetlights, or keeping more on at night? I think in the UK we now switch some off or dim them on less used roads, and I think less polluting lights are now being brought in.
I was curious about Malta/Cyprus:
Malta has a density of 1562 people/sqkilometer (4077/sqmi)
Cyprus 136/sqkilometer
Bangladesh also 1329/sqkilo, but I guess they're too poor, at