Mongolia has the lowest population density among UN member states. Only about two people live in each square kilometre, making Mongolia one of the most sparsely populated countries on Earth.
The country’s enormous territory covers roughly 1.56 million square kilometres, yet its population is only around 3.5 million. Much of Mongolia consists of steppe, desert, and rugged mountain terrain, including the vast Gobi Desert. These environments make permanent settlement and intensive agriculture difficult.
Mongolia’s history also helps explain the pattern. For centuries, many Mongolians lived as mobile pastoralists, moving herds between seasonal grazing areas rather than forming dense agricultural settlements. Today, Ulaanbaatar contains a large share of the country’s population, leaving the countryside especially thinly populated.
A frequent mix-up is Namibia, which has the lowest density among sovereign countries with a coastline. Australia and Canada also have very low densities, but their larger populations make them denser overall than Mongolia.