Countries with the Most Airports

Because they have a lot of airports.

Lots of little airfields due to poor road infrastructure

But no Peru.

A lot of places in SA are very difficult to access by train or car so they built airports.

Not much, definitely not the reason

Like Bolivia has 1 airport/airfield in 12.7k population while China has 1 airport/airfield in 2.56m population. That difference is about 200 times. But of course, if comparing to India or Bangladesh, the number would be even more astonishing.

It depends what you call an airport. Most South American 'airports' are virtually landing strips where you can land and take off and that's about it. It also depends who uses the airport and for what purpose. Many light aircraft fly from South America to USA carrying cargo. The passenger aircraft only use a few of the major airports.

! don't think this is per-capita. I think it's the actual number of airports in the whole country. The South American countries probably have many more (but smaller) landing strips, as many places are very remote and much more accessible by air.

Very remote villages, accessible only by air (in terms of practicality). The Andes Mountains and the Amazon rain forest are incredible obstacles to road or rail construction. Kind of reminds me how it is very difficult and expensive to string traditional wired phone service - cellular towers are much more efficient and far cheaper than pulling wire. One airstrip versus a mountain road with tunnels....In a way, it is a blessing because the beautiful cultures in the deep interior of South America are much more likely to remain relatively intact with less encroachment from outside. That said, being cut off from the world has the effect of keeping these areas poor, and puts a tremendous limit on access to healthcare and education.

Because the terrain is so difficult. In China you would just take a train or a highway. In Paraguay that is often not really an option; you need to use the tiny airstrip.

Rainforest again i would think

right. same answer. Difficult terrain, poor roads, no infrastructure like railroads etc.

Because it has enough airports to make the list.

islands as well

Lots of islands. You need a way to get to them...

Because the Vatican is a microstate (with smallest area and population), and actually has no airports in it (unsurprisingly).

Who knew?

Not me.

The proliferation of cargo cults!

As about 90% of the test takers (me including). In hindsight it makes sense that it's on the list, but I still wouldn't have told about it.

Are you serious?

Whole lotta shipping planes. Plus, it's wealthy, populous, and huge. So...

Combination of factors including that flying is a fetishized hobby in the US. There are private airstrips (now mostly disused) built into the farmland all over the place. There's also Alaska which is huge with limited roads, although a lot of that traffic uses water for landing.

Don’t worry... there is

Because they have a lot of airports. (sorry brandybuck96!)

You're the only one shocked.

Mostly big countries (Paraguay is a small country for SA and still has 4/5 the size of Spain), most people wouldn't travel by roads for huge distances. Rio-Brasilia, for instance, is a 3 hours flight, or 14 hours by car, or 20 hours (at least) by bus, which would you choose?

Moreover, railroads infrastructure is terrible for a few reasons (terrain, history, politics).

Therefore, the preferential transport is by air.

The reason I was surprised by PNG is because Indonesia is very much like PNG, but much bigger and only has 100 airports difference.

Because they have a lot of airports.

I almost typed png but then I was like "no, there's no way" so i am mad

Yes, W name