Mapping people

[A fascinating map where country size is scaled by the number of residents](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram).

What defines a country’s importance? Its GDP; its military, its resources? More than anything, the most important attribute of a country is its people–who are they, where are they, and how many of them are there? Population density will define not only opportunity, but also our impact on the earth in the next 100 years.

Population can also be a blessing or a curse for a country. I recall (but can’t attribute) one quote about China’s rise…”When the West sees a billion workers threatening their jobs, Chinese leaders see a billion mouths to feed.” Meanwhile their neighbors to the east in Japan increasingly live alone, and find themselves needing to [train robots for companionship](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/japan-loneliness-aging-robots-technology_us_5b72873ae4b0530743cd04aa).

Should you head toward areas of high density, or away from them? Will technology make it easier to spread out, or harder? Answering these questions will be critical to success in the future.