This is mo longer as clear.
“Historically, the biggest driver of the number of people that could live in a specific area—the density of people—was food per acre: If one acre can produce a lot of food, it can feed lots of mouths, and lots of people will live there. Less productive land will not feed as many people, so population density will be lower.”
https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/a-science-of-cities