Countries

Singapore
Singapore is the most crowded country in the world, according to the Overpopulation Index.
The index also finds that countries like United Kingdom, Netherlands and Switzerland are more crowded than India or China, which are the most populous nations on earth.
The index was published by the Optimum Population Trust which has been campaigning for measures to stem the population growth in the United Kingdom. The trust has also sought strict measures to curb the inflow of immigrants into Britain

Israel
The Jewish nation of Israel is the second most crowded country in the world.
Surprisingly, there are nine Middle Eastern countries and eight European ones in the top 20 most overpopulated nations in the index.
Third world nations like Brazil, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Russia, which have faced a virtual population explosion, do not find a mention in the list.

Image: Jewish worshippers pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

Kuwait
The tiny nation of Kuwait ranks third in the index.
The index, the first of its kind, doesn't compare the size of the nation with its total population to deduce how crowded it is.
The Overpopulation Index measures the amount of resources available to sustain the population, whether the country is dependent on other countries and whether it consumes more resources than it produces.

Image: Kuwaitis attend a Parliament session on electoral law

Burkina Faso
The small nation of Burkina Faso in western Africa finds a place at the bottom of the index, which lists the 77 most populated countries.
The Optimum Population Trust estimates that the earth, with a population of 6.8 billion, is already overcrowded by 2 billion people.
"The earth may not be able to support more than half its present numbers before the end of this century. We are rapidly destabilising our climate and destroying the natural world on which we depend for future life," warns the trust.

Image: France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy at a medical...