Islanders, tallied

When I told my friend Robert last night that Haiti has about 9 million people, and the Dominican Republic about 10 million, he asked in astonishment, “How big is that island? Like, as big as what state? South Carolina?”

Uh, actually, yeah, almost exactly as big as South Carolina – only 10 percent smaller, in fact. (Helluva guess, man.) But South Carolina contains just 4.4 million people. If you want to get a sense of the population density of Hispaniola, it turns out you have to put the population of Texas into a space as big as Indiana, or cram every Californian into something Iowa-sized, or just take South Carolina’s current populace and add everyone who lives in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Colorado. Then throw up a big ol' fence, ratchet the unemployment up to 83 percent, steal all the trees and let the good times roll.

A view into Port-au-Prince: photo credit Jonathan Katz