Russia's far east, an area that Americans call Siberia (although the traditional Siberia is bigger), is a vast area with very few people. How few? Fewer than eight million people. Compare that to London, the small dot on the left, which has more than eight million. New York City also has more than eight million people in the city limits (23 million in the combined metro statistical area).
Siberia's reputation in the West is that of Stalin's exiles, when millions of people were sent to the far east for political or genocidal reasons. Most of them either died or left when they got the chance. But the far east has been losing people steadily even in the 21st century.
I once flew over east Russia, and although it took forever, I never saw any evidence of a city or manmade infrastructure. The landscape, however, is both majestic and frightening. Why is there so much empty land in this area? Yes, it's cold, but there are many other reasons, both geographical and historical, laid out in a post at Brilliant Maps. -via Nag on the Lake