populated

Populated is an adjective describing a place that has residents or is occupied by people. It can refer to a city, town, village, or any area where humans live. The term is commonly used with qualifiers such as densely populated or sparsely populated to indicate population density and with phrases like populated area to designate zones of settlement.

In geography and cartography, a populated place is a standard category in geographic data. It denotes a center of habitation, including incorporated and unincorporated communities, villages, and neighborhoods, where people live and work. The term does not necessarily reflect administrative status.

Populated contrasts with uninhabited or empty areas, such as deserts or wilderness, or with seasonal settlements. It is used in planning, demographics, and statistics to describe the distribution of people, measure urbanization, and frame services like housing, infrastructure, and utilities.

Etymology: populate comes from Latin roots; populated is the past participle form used in modern English. The related noun population refers to the total number of people in a place, while population density expresses how many individuals occupy a given area.