Demographics of Europe

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: European Geography

Population growth/decline of European countries

The demographics of Europe refers to the demography of the population that inhabits the European continent. This pertains mainly to the changing number and composition of the population of Europe. Since the Renaissance, Europe has had a dominating influence in culture, economics and social movements in the world. European demography is important not only historically, but also in understanding current international relations and population issues.

Some current and past issues in European demography have included religious emigration, race relations, economic immigration, a declining birth rate and an ageing population. In some countries, such as the Republic of Ireland and Poland, access to abortion is currently limited; in the past, such restrictions and also restrictions on artificial birth control were commonplace throughout Europe. Furthermore, two European countries (currently The Netherlands and Switzerland) have allowed a limited form of voluntary euthanasia. It remains to be seen how much demographic impact this may have.

In 2005 the population of Europe was estimated to be 728 million according to the United Nations, which is slightly more than one-ninth of the world's population. A century ago, Europe had nearly a quarter of the world's population. The population of Europe has grown in the past century, but in other areas of the world (in particular Africa and Asia) the population has grown far more quickly. In 2005 the EU had an overall net gain from immigration of 1.8 million people, despite having one of the highest population densities in the world. This accounted for almost 85% of Europe's total population growth. According to UN population projection (medium variant), Europe's share will fall to 7% in 2050, numbering 653 million.

Total population

Current population of European countries

In 2005, the population of Europe was 728 million or 11% of the world population. It has been growing from 500 million after World War II, peaked in the early 2000s at more than 700 million and has since then begun a decline.

Regions

Modern Political map

Europe according to the EU

Council of Europe nations

Regions of Europe according to CIA world factbook

Regional grouping according to the UN

Europe according to a widely accepted definition

According to different definitions, such as consideration of the concept of Central Europe, the following territories and regions may be subject to various other categorisations.

Name of region and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July, 2002 est.)	Population density (per km²)	Capital
Åland (Finland)	1,552	26,008	16.8	Mariehamn
Albania	28,748	3,600,523	125.2	Tirana
Andorra	468	68,403	146.2	Andorra la Vella
Austria	83,858	8,169,929	97.4	Vienna
Armenia	29,800	3,229,900	101	Yerevan
Azerbaijan	86,600	8,621,000	97	Baku
Belarus	207,600	10,335,382	49.8	Minsk
Belgium	30,510	10,274,595	336.8	Brussels
Bosnia and Herzegovina	51,129	4,448,500	77.5	Sarajevo
Bulgaria	110,910	7,621,337	68.7	Sofia
Croatia	56,542	4,437,460	77.7	Zagreb
Cyprus	9,251	788,457	85	Nicosia
Czech Republic	78,866	10,256,760	130.1	Prague
Denmark	43,094	5,368,854	124.6	Copenhagen
Estonia	45,226	1,415,681	31.3	Tallinn
Faroe Islands (Denmark)	1,399	46,011	32.9	Tórshavn
Finland	336,593	5,157,537	15.3	Helsinki
France	547,030	59,765,983	109.3	Paris
Georgia	69,700	4,661,473	64	Tbilisi
Germany	357,021	83,251,851	233.2	Berlin
Gibraltar (UK)	5.9	27,714	4,697.3	Gibraltar
Greece	131,940	10,645,343	80.7	Athens
Guernsey	78	64,587	828.0	St. Peter Port
Hungary	93,030	10,075,034	108.3	Budapest
Iceland	103,000	307,261	2.7	Reykjavík
Ireland	70,280	4,234,925	60.3	Dublin
Isle of Man	572	73,873	129.1	Douglas
Italy	301,230	58,751,711	191.6	Rome
Jersey	116	89,775	773.9	Saint Helier
Kazakhstan	2,724,900	15,217,711	5.6	Astana
Kosovo	10,887	2,126,708	220	Pristina
Latvia	64,589	2,366,515	36.6	Riga
Liechtenstein	160	32,842	205.3	Vaduz
Lithuania	65,200	3,601,138	55.2	Vilnius
Luxembourg	2,586	448,569	173.5	Luxembourg
Macedonia	25,333	2,054,800	81.1	Skopje
Malta	316	397,499	1,257.9	Valletta
Moldova	33,843	4,434,547	131.0	Chişinău
Monaco	1.95	31,987	16,403.6	Monaco
Montenegro	13,812	616,258	44.6	Podgorica
Netherlands	41,526	16,318,199	393.0	Amsterdam
Norway	324,220	4,525,116	14.0	Oslo
Poland	312,685	38,625,478	123.5	Warsaw
Portugal	91,568	10,409,995	110.1	Lisbon
Romania	238,391	21,698,181	91.0	Bucharest
Russia	17,075,400	142,200,000	26.8	Moscow
San Marino	61	27,730	454.6	San Marino
Serbia (including Kosovo)	88,361	9,663,742	109.4	Belgrade
Slovakia	48,845	5,422,366	111.0	Bratislava
Slovenia	20,273	1,932,917	95.3	Ljubljana
Spain	504,851	45,061,274	89.3	Madrid
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (Norway)	62,049	2,868	0.046	Longyearbyen
Sweden	449,964	9,090,113	19.7	Stockholm
Switzerland	41,290	7,507,000	176.8	Bern
Turkey	783,562	70,586,256	93	Ankara
Ukraine	603,700	48,396,470	80.2	Kiev
United Kingdom	244,820	61,100,835	244.2	London
Vatican City	0.44	900	2,045.5	Vatican City
Total	10,180,000	731,000,000	70

Age

Perhaps mirroring its declining population growth, European countries tend to have older populations overall. European countries had nine of the top ten highest median ages in national populations in 2005. Only Japan had an older population.

Religion

Predominant religions in Europe      Roman Catholicism      Orthodox Christianity       Protestantism       Sunni Islam       Shia Islam      Judaism      Buddhism

Religion in Europe spans approximately 10,000 years of human settlement on the continent. It has developed from the earliest prehistoric spirituality via the Ancient Greek, Roman and Nordic faiths to the spread of the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Europe has a rich and diverse religious history, and its various faiths have been a major influence on European art, culture, philosophy and law. In modern times, the overwhelming majority of religious Europeans are Christian; the second-largest religion in Europe is Islam, followed by Judaism. Europe also has the largest number and proportion of agnostics and atheists in the Western world.

Nationality

Language

Europe has 30-40 major languages depending on definition. The European Union (EU), which currently excludes Norway and many eastern European countries, recognises 23 official languages as of 2007. According to the same source, the seven most natively spoken languages in the EU are (percentage of total European population):

Linguistic map of Europe (simplified).

1. 18% German
2. 13% French
3. 12% English
4. 12% Italian
5. 9% Spanish
6. 9% Polish
7. 5% Dutch

These figures change slightly when foreign language skills are taken into account. The list below shows the top eight European languages ordered by total number of speakers in the EU:

1. 51% English
2. 33% German
3. 28% French
4. 16% Italian
5. 15% Spanish
6. 10% Polish
7. 7% Russian
8. 6% Dutch

This makes German the most frequently spoken native language and English the most frequently second spoken language overall in the European Union, with German the second-most common language overall.

Foreign language skills

Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Malta, Sweden, Slovenia, Belgium, and Finland are the EU countries with the most foreign language skills. This refers to all foreign languages. English is spoken most frequently in Malta, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The largest countries in Europe have the following percentages of English language skills: 44% Germany, 32% France, 28% Italy, 22% Poland, 18% Spain. The countries with the least foreign language skills are the UK, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

Extinct and endangered languages

Many languages have become extinct in Europe and the process is continuing. Languages that are already rated as extinct by the UNESCO Red Book include Old Prussian, Cornish, and two Jewish languages. Nearly extinct and seriously endangered languages include several Sami, Frisian, and regional Jewish languages, Tsakonian and Breton.

Ethnicity

There are indigenous ethnic groups, as well as immigrant groups (ranging from Black Europeans to Asian Europeans).

Genetic origins

Homo sapiens appears in Europe some 40,000 years ago, with the Cro magnon settlement. Over the prehistoric period there was continual immigration to Europe, notably with the neolithic revolution.

The vast majority of Europe’s inhabitants are of the European (or Caucasoid) geographic race, characterized by white or lightly pigmented skins and variability in eye and hair colour and by a number of biochemical similarities. .

Genetically, the main substructure within European populations is between the Atlantic ("Basque"), the Balkans (" Near East") and the Northern (" Finnic") poles. The main components in the European genomes appear to derive from ancestors whose features were similar to those of modern Basques and Near Easterners. The lowest degree of either Basque or Near Eastern admixture is found in Finland, whereas the highest values are, respectively, 70% ("Basque") in Spain and more than 60% ("Near Eastern") in the Balkans.

A 2007 study using samples exclusively from Europe found an unusually high degree of European homogeneity: "there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world." The main component of genetic differentiation in Europe was found to occur on a line from the north to the south-east ( northern Europe to the Balkans), with another east-west axis of differentiation across Europe.