Asukastiheyden

Asukastiheyden is a demographic measure that describes how densely people live in a defined geographic area. In Finnish statistics and urban planning, it is typically expressed as the number of inhabitants per unit of land area, most often per square kilometer. The concept is closely related to population density and is used to compare how densely different places are inhabited.

Calculation: asukastiheyden = N / A, where N is the resident population and A is the land area of the defined unit. Depending on data conventions, land area may exclude water bodies or be based on total land area. Mid-year population figures are commonly used for temporal comparability. Some analyses distinguish gross density from net density, and may adjust for non-residential land uses.

Applications: density information informs urban planning, zoning, infrastructure provision, housing policy, and transportation planning by indicating how many people rely on services within a given area. It is also used in comparing cities, regions, and neighborhoods, or in modeling accessibility and demand for utilities.

Limitations: density is an average that may mask uneven distribution; it does not capture distribution within an area, housing types, household size, or income. Therefore, density should be interpreted together with other indicators such as land use patterns, mobility, and service coverage.