There have never been so many humans on Earth and the population is expected to increase significantly over the next 30 years.

This begs the question: how are we going to accommodate all these people when the world population reaches 8 to 9 billion people?

Well, the good news is that while many countries are extremely overpopulated, some are significantly underpopulated.

The bad news, however, is that they are underpopulated for good reason. From extreme heat to distance from water, the reasons for these countries’ lack of population are vast.

But the 11 least populated countries make up 20 percent of the planet’s landmass, according to “From Here to There,” which documented the strange reasons behind some of the emptiest countries on the planet.

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11. Kazakhstan – 7.32 inhabitants per square km

Kazakhstan is larger than Western Europe, but has just under 20 million inhabitants.

So why does such a large country have so few inhabitants? Well, size is actually part of the problem.

Central Kazakhstan receives very little rain and is so far from a natural water resource that it is difficult to survive there.

Likewise, although its vast open plains, deserts and rugged mountains are magnificent natural features, they constitute poor agricultural areas and given that this represents 94% of its land mass, only a small part of the country has historically been populated.

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10. Mauritania – 4.72 inhabitants per square km

Located in West Africa, Mauritania is the seventh driest country on the planet with just over three inches of rain per year.

This makes water scarcity a significant problem in a country where 90% of the land is covered by the Sahara Desert.

As a result, the majority of the population lives either on the west coast facing the Atlantic Ocean, or in the south of the country, on the Senegal River, with many areas of the center and east completely uninhabited.

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9. Botswana – 4.6 inhabitants per square km

Although it is larger than France and one of the most prosperous and stable African countries, Botswana has fewer than 2.7 million people.

Much of the country is either a national park or semi-arid desert, but that’s not the whole story of their low population.

One of the most important factors was the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which by 2000 meant that 40% of the country’s population had the disease, with an average life expectancy in 2002 of just 37 years.

The impact of the virus has led to a decline in birth rates, which are currently half those of the 1980s.

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8. Libya – 4.12 inhabitants per km²

Located in the heart of the Sahara, you can probably understand the reasons for a lower population.

With two inches of rainfall and no rivers, water scarcity in the country is a major factor.

If it weren’t for its long coastline along which most of the country lives, Libya would probably be one of, if not the emptiest countries on the planet.

(Image: Getty)