What if the largest states had the biggest populations?

After reading one of Simon Job's posts on mathsclass.net, I started to think about population density. Using the following data from wikipedia:

State	Area (km2)	Population
Western Australia	2529875	6967200
Queensland	1730648	5297600
Northern Territory	1349129	4279400
South Australia	983482	2163200
New South Wales	800642	1601800
Victoria	227416	500001
Tasmania	68401	344200
Australian Capital Territory	2358	219900

 

Consider the following question:

1. What is the population density of each of the states?


2. What is the population density of the entire country?


3. Why is the population density in each state different?


4. If people were to be redistributed, so that the population density across Australia was consistent, how many people would live in each state?

How many people would live in Tasmania?

Application to Teaching This activity and these questions relate very nicely to ratios in Stage 4 Mathematics.