World_population_density_1994 - with equator

The list of uninhabited regions includes a number of places around the globe. The list changes year over year as human beings migrate into formerly uninhabited regions, or migrate out of formerly inhabited regions.

Definitions

The exact definition of what makes a place "uninhabited" is not simple.

Nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

hunter-gather and

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

societies live in extremely low population densities and range across large territories where they camp, rather than staying in any one place year-round. During the height of

settler colonialism Settler colonialism is a logic and structure of displacement by Settler, settlers, using colonial rule, over an environment for replacing it and its indigenous peoples with settlements and the society of the settlers. Settler colonialism is ...

many European governments declared huge areas of the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

to be ''

Terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". Since the nineteenth century it has occasionally been used in international law as a principle to justify claims that territory may be acquired ...

'' (land belonging to no one), but this was done to create a legal pretext to annex them to European empires; these lands were not, and are not uninhabited. While some communities are still nomadic, there are many remote and isolated communities in the less populated parts of the world that are separated from each other by hundreds or thousands kilometres of "uninhabited"

wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plurale tantum, plural) are Earth, Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human impact on the environment, human activity, or any urbanization, nonurbanized land not u ...

, but these regions are still used for

trapping Animal trapping, or simply trapping or ginning, is the use of a device to remotely catch and often kill an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including for meat, fur trade, fur/feathers, sport hunting, pest control, and w ...

, berry picking, mushroom hunting and so on, and are of spiritual significance to the settled descendants of formerly nomadic people. Other places may not have a permanent resident population and yet still contain many humans who stay temporarily, as for example in

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

s. Jasper National Park in Canada received 1,672,497 visitors in 2020 for example, but no one lives permanently in most of the park (

Improvement District No. 12 Improvement District No. 12 (Jasper National Park), or Improvement District No. 12, is an improvement district in Alberta, Canada. Coextensive with Jasper National Park in Alberta's Rockies, the improvement district is the municipality that p ...

, the local government area that includes most of the park had a population of 0 in 2021). Generally speaking, only a few regions of the dry-land part of the Earth are so remote or have such a harsh climate that no one uses those areas for even part of the year. These places are tiny islands, the driest part of large deserts, very high mountains, and ice caps. The only other areas which are completely free of people are areas set aside by law such as

strict nature reserve A strict nature reserve (IUCN category Ia) or wilderness area (IUCN category Ib) is the highest category of protected area recognised by the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), a body which is part of the International Union for ...

sacred mountains Sacred mountains are central to certain religions, and are usually the subjects of many legends. For many, the most symbolic aspect of a mountain is the peak because it is believed that it is closest to heaven or other religious realms. Many reli ...

, bombing ranges, and

exclusion zone An exclusion zone is a geographic area in which specific activities are prohibited by an authority. The United States Department of Defense defines an exclusion zone is a territory where an authority prohibits specific activities in a specific g ...

List

As a group, the list of uninhabited places are called the "nonecumene". This is a special geography term which means the uninhabited area of the world.

Africa

The

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

, the world's largest non-icecap desert, is ''not'' uninhabited and even remote areas like

In Guezzam Province In Guezzam Province () is a province ('' wilaya)'' in far southern Algeria that was created in 2019. It is the southernmost and least populous province of Algeria and lies on the border with Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Nige ...

, Algeria, have a population of tens of thousands. The only truly uninhabited places in the Sahara are the ergs: sand dune fields. Even the hot and salty dried lake beds have Bedouin communities within them that graze their animals in the salt marshes and at nearby oases, for example the below-sea level

Qattara Depression The Qattara Depression () is a depression (geology), depression in northwestern Egypt, specifically in the Matruh Governorate. The depression is part of the Western Desert (Egypt), Western Desert of Egypt. The Qattara Depression lies below sea ...

contains the tiny village of

Qara Oasis The Qara Oasis (also spelt Cara or Gara; ; also Qarat Umm El Sagheir, i.e. ) is an inhabited oasis in Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and W ...

and cannot be said to be truly uninhabited.

Antarctica

All of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is uninhabited aside from a few scientific research stations.

Arctic

Circumpolar coastal human population distribution ca

Tens of thousands of people live north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

and many hundreds of thousands more within the

Arctic Ocean drainage basin The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recog ...

but outside of the Circle. The only parts of the Arctic that are truly uninhabited are the interior and northernmost coasts of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

, many of the islands in the

Canadian Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, which is, by itself, much larger ...

and some other islands in

Northern Norway Northern Norway (, , ; ) is a geographical region of Norway, consisting of the three northernmost counties Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainland. Some of the largest towns in Northern Norway (from south to no ...

and the Russian North.

Devon Island Devon Island (, ) is an island in Canada and the largest desert island, uninhabited island (no permanent residents) in the world. It is located in Baffin Bay, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is one of the largest members of the Arctic Ar ...

, in the Canadian North, is the world's largest uninhabited island.

Northeast Greenland National Park Northeast Greenland National Park (, ) is the world's largest national park and the 10th largest protected area (the only larger protected areas consist mostly of sea). Established in 1974, the Northeast Greenland national park expanded to its p ...

, which is the world's largest terrestrial protected area, has had a census population of 0 for many years since the only mine in the region closed. Nevertheless parts of this remote area can see seasonal use: 31 people and about 110 dogs were present over winter of 2008.

Australia

Even the driest regions of Australia have indigenous communities within them. In 1984, a previously uncontacted

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of Pintupi emerged from the

Gibson Desert The Gibson Desert is a large desert in Western Australia, largely in an almost pristine state. It is about in size, making it the fifth largest desert in Australia, after the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Tanami and Simpson deserts. The ...

. There are however, several ergs (sand dunes and salt plains) that are truly uninhabited.

North America

Besides the in Arctic and Subarctic (see above), few areas of any size in North America can be said to be uninhabited. Most of these are strict nature reserves or

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural) are Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human activity, or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally ...

protected by law. Among the largest of these are Improvement District No. 25, Alberta ( and Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park, British Columbia (.

Others

Antipodes Islands The Antipodes Islands (, ) are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The archipelago lies to the southeast of Stewart Island / Rakiura, and to the ...

Ashmore and Cartier Islands The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands is an uninhabited Australian States and territories of Australia#External territories, external territory consisting of four low-lying tropical islands in two separate reefs (Ashmore and Cartier), ...

Bajo Nuevo Bank Bajo Nuevo Bank, also known as the Petrel Islands (), is a small, uninhabited reef with some small grass-covered islets, located in the western Caribbean Sea at , with a lighthouse on Low Cay at . The closest neighboring land feature is Serrani ...

Baker Island Baker Island, once known as New Nantucket in the early 19th century, is a small, uninhabited atoll located just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean, approximately southwest of Honolulu. Positioned almost halfway between Hawaii a ...

Ball's Pyramid Ball's Pyramid is an uninhabited islet in the Pacific Ocean located southeast of Lord Howe Island, between Australia and New Zealand. The steep rocky basalt outcrop is the eroded plug of a shield volcano and caldera that formed 6.4million ye ...

* Balleny Islands * Big Major Cay *

Bouvet Island Bouvet Island ( ; ) is an uninhabited subantarctic volcanic island and dependency of Norway. It is a protected nature reserve, and situated in the South Atlantic Ocean at the southern end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it is the world's most extre ...

* Caroline Island *

Clipperton Island Clipperton Island ( ; ), also known as Clipperton Atoll and previously as Clipperton's Rock, is an uninhabited French coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The only French territory in the North Pacific, Clipperton is from Paris, France ...

* Elephant Island * Elobey Chico * Ernst Thälmann Island * Much of

Fiordland Fiordland (, "The Pit of Tattooing", and also translated as "the Shadowlands"), is a non-administrative geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the western third of Southland. Most of F ...

, New Zealand * Goa Island *

Gough Island Gough Island ( ), also known historically as Gonçalo Álvares, is a rugged volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a dependency of Tristan da Cunha and part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan d ...

Hans Island Hans Island (Inuktitut and , ; Inuktitut syllabics: ; , ; , ) is an island in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait in the high Arctic region, split between the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian territory of Nunavut a ...

* Harmil *

Hashima Island , commonly called , is an abandoned island off Nagasaki, lying about from the centre of the city. It is one of 505 uninhabited islands in Nagasaki Prefecture. The island's most notable features are its abandoned concrete buildings, undisturbe ...

* Hatutu *

Heard Island and McDonald Islands The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) is an Australian States and territories of Australia, external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to An ...

* The upper

alpine zone Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated alpine climate, harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alp ...

and nival zone of the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

(and most other high mountains). *

Howland Island Howland Island () is a coral island and strict nature reserve located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an Territories of the ...

* Ilha da Queimada Grande * Inishark *

Jaco Island Jaco Island (, , Fataluku language, Fataluku: or ) is an uninhabited island in Timor-Leste, a country occupying the eastern end of the island of Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands in Southeast Asia. It lies off the eastern tip with Cape Cutcha o ...

Jarvis Island Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an Territories of the United States#Unincorporated u ...

* Jong Batu * Kahoolawe Island *

Kerguelen Islands The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the subantarctic, sub-Antarctic region. They are among the Extremes on Earth#Remoteness, most i ...

Kingman Reef Kingman Reef () is a largely submerged, uninhabited, triangle-shaped reef, geologically an atoll, east-west and north-south, in the North Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between the Hawaiian Islands and American Samoa. It has an area of 3 hecta ...

* Little Colonsay * Mborokua * Minquiers and Ecréhous * Melville Island * Monomoy Island * Perejil Island * Pheasant Island *

Prince Edward Islands The Prince Edward Islands are two small uninhabited subantarctic volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean that are administered by South Africa. They are named Marion Island (named after Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, 1724–1772) and P ...

Navassa Island Navassa Island (; ; , sometimes ) is an uninhabited island in the Caribbean Sea. Located east of Jamaica, south of Cuba, and west of Jérémie on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, it is subject to an ongoing territorial dispute between Haiti and ...

* Nomans Land *

Paracel Islands The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoàng Sa Archipelago (), are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea and currently controlled by the People's Republic of China. The word ''paracel'' is of Portuguese origi ...

Palmyra Atoll Palmyra Atoll (), also referred to as Palmyra Island, is one of the Line Islands, Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati). It is located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way be ...

Redonda Redonda is an List of uninhabited regions, uninhabited Caribbean island which is a dependency of Saint John, Antigua and Barbuda, in the Leeward Islands, West Indies. The island is about long, wide, and is high at its highest point. It lie ...

* Round Island *

South Orkney Islands The South Orkney Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands, islands in the Southern Ocean, about north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula Spratly Islands The Spratly Islands (; zh, s=南沙群岛, t=南沙群島, p=Nánshā Qúndǎo; ; ) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed of islands, islets, cays, and more than 100 reefs, sometimes grouped in submerged old atoll ...

"Spratly Islands" at CIA
excerpt, "no indigenous inhabitants"; retrieved 2013-4-19. * Stirling Island * Siwalik (outermost Himalayan foothills) and surrounding alluvial skirt

Bhabar Bhabar or Bhabhar is a region south of the Lower Himalayas and the Sivalik Hills in Garhwal and Kumaon, India. The Bhabhar region contains some of the largest cities of Kumaon and Garhwal: Dehradun, Haridwar, Haldwani, Rishikesh, Ramnagar ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

, apparently due to endemic

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

and droughty soils. * St Kilda * Tetepare Island * Tibet's upper

and nival zone. * Tinakula

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uninhabited Regions Lists by region

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...