eli5: Why do Asian countries have such high populations?

Question

What the title says. India and china alone have almost 3 billion. Asia has over half the worlds population. Why has this historically been the case even though many Asian countries developed far slower than European countries.

In: Other

Answer 1

Plains of the great Asian rivers in subtropical climate are insanely productive agriculturally. The Mekong delta can yield 3 harvests per year; so since the advent agriculture, these spots were very favorable for human settlement. And when you have a lot of people being able to feed a lot of babies…you get a lot of population