Vastness & Solitude

Namibia has a population density of only 3.1 inhabitants per km² — one of the lowest in the world (for comparison: Germany has 237). This means: There are areas in Namibia as large as a German federal state where no one lives.

This extreme emptiness fundamentally shapes the travel experience:

• You drive for hours on gravel roads without encountering another car
• In the Namib Desert, the nearest person is often 100 km away
• The silence is so absolute that you can hear your own heartbeat
• At night, the sky is so dark that you can see the Milky Way as a bright band

Most of the 2.6 million Namibians live in the north (Ovamboland), where there is water and fertile soil. The rest of the country — Namib Desert, Kalahari, Damaraland, Skeleton Coast — is extremely sparsely populated. Windhoek, with 450,000 inhabitants, is the only real city in the country.