The Country Similarity Index attempts to quantify how similar countries are to each other relative to other countries. The index is a statistically-based way to measure this. 20% of the index is based on geography. 10% of a country’s geography score (2% of the overall Country Similarity Index score) is allocated for the country’s population distribution and built-up areas. The following are the factors that were included:
Population Density
Singapore and Bahrain are essentially city-states, so they have extremely high population densities. Besides those outlier countries, Bangladesh has the highest population density in the world, with over 1,000 people per sq. km. The least densely populated countries tend to be mostly located in inhospitable deserts. Mongolia, Namibia, and Australia all have less than 4 people per sq. km.
The World Bank is the source of the data:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST
Countries were categorized into the following groups by population per square kilometer:
0-7.51, 7.51-15.62, 15.62-31.25, 31.25- 62.5, 62.5-125, 250-500, 500-1000, 1000-2000, 2000-4000, 4000-8000
Artificial Surfaces
In most countries, less than one percent of the land is artificial surfaces like urban areas with buildings, as well as mines and transportation infrastructure. Bahrain and Singapore are two of the countries with more than 10 percent of their land considered to be artificial surfaces. They are densely populated island nations. European nations tend to have a higher percentage of artificial surfaces than other regions of the world.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is the source of the data: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=Land_Cover
Countries were categorized into the following groups by percentage of artificial surfaces:
0-0.6%, 0.6-1.2%, 1.2-2.4%, 2.4-4.8%, 4.8-9.6%, 9.6-19.2%
Skyscraper Density
A skyscraper is defined as any building over 150 meters in height. Many countries do not have any skyscrapers. They are usually either countries that are not densely populated or countries that are not especially wealthy. East Asian and Southeast Asian countries tend to have a lot of skyscrapers relative to their land area. Since Singapore is a densely populated island city-state, it has one of the highest densities of skyscrapers of any nation.
Emporis is the source of the data:
https://www.emporis.com/buildings
Countries were categorized into the following groups based on number of skyscrapers per 1 million square kilometers of land area:
0-100, 100-200, 200-400, 400-800, 800-1600, over 1600
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