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Q.Is it true that almost everyone in Nara lives in the north, and the rest is mountains?

Published 2026-06-10

Answer

Essentially true. Over 90% of the prefecture's 1.26 million people (September 2026 estimate) live around the Nara Basin in the northwest, and about 77% of the land is forest (as of March 2022). Yoshino District — roughly 56% of the prefecture's area — is home to just 34,000 people (April 2025), under 3% of the population.

The numbers are more extreme than you'd think

Nara Prefecture has about 1.26 million residents (1,264,501 as of September 1, 2026, prefectural estimate based on the 2020 census). More than 90% of them live around the Nara Basin in the northwestern corner — home to every major city including Nara, Kashihara, Ikoma and Yamatokōriyama. In fact, Nara has a habitable-land share of 23.1%, ranking 43rd nationally (FY2024); the flat land people can live on is itself concentrated in the northwest.

1.26Mestimated population (Sep 1, 2026)

90%+live around the Nara Basin

~77%of the land is forest

The southern half is almost entirely mountains

Yoshino District in the south (3 towns and 8 villages) covers about 2,055 km² — roughly 56% of the prefecture's 3,691 km². Its population is about 34,000 (April 2025, resident register), less than 3% of the prefectural total. Totsukawa is Japan's largest village at 672.38 km² — bigger than Tokyo's 23 wards or Lake Biwa — yet 96% of it is forested mountains. The deep Kii Mountain Range blankets the entire southern half of the prefecture.

~56%of the land is Yoshino District

34,000people live there (<3%)

672 km²Totsukawa, Japan's largest village

What does this mean for tourism?

This north–south divide shapes tourism too. Plot the national land-survey data on tourism resources and lodging capacity, and you can see at a glance that both attractions and accommodation cluster in the north. The south, meanwhile, holds Yoshinoyama's cherry blossoms and the Ōmine Okugakemichi pilgrimage route — the World Heritage 'Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range'. The north is day-trip territory reachable by train; the south is a place for longer journeys into the mountains. One prefecture, two completely different kinds of destination.

Datasets behind this article

Sources