[GolfPopper]

The late Third Age Middle-Earth of Lord of the Rings is largely post-apocalyptic. It was heavily populated a thousand-plus years ago, but it isn't anymore.

This isn't casually obvious from the text, as The Shire and Bree are near pastoral paradises within their borders, and Gondor is a functioning kingdom (the farms surrounding Minas Tirith are mentioned briefly in the book), and we all remember the Lonely Mountain, Laketown, and Dale from The Hobbit. But the vast majority of Eriador used to be inhabited, but no longer is, at least not with any density.

Arnor and its successor kingdoms are gone, the great dwarf-Kingdoms are gone (with the Lonely Mountain as a very local and very recent successor-state), the Elves have dwindled to the level where the Havens and Rivendell have no military capability, roads have crumbled, and almost all the cities and towns of Men outside of Gondor (and its allied state of Rohan) have been in ruins for centuries.