DEMOGRAPHY OF EUROPE

The 'Demography of Europe' refers 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 are 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 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.^[1] According to UN population projection (medium variant), Europe's share will fall to 7% in 2050, numbering 653 million. ^[2]

Contents

Total population

Territories and regions

Age

Sex

Religion

Nationality

Language

Foreign language skills

Extinct and endangered languages

Occupation

See also

References

Total population

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 to the present size of more than 700 million. The United Nations Population Division estimates that Europe's population peaked in early 2000s and has now begun a decline.

Year	Population in thousands
1950	547,405
1960	604,406
1970	655,862
1980	692,435
1990	721,390
2000	728,463
2005	728,389
2010	725,786
2020	714,959
2030	698,140
2040	677,191
2050	653,323

Territories and regions

The countries in this table are categorised according to the scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.
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[3] and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July, 2002 est.)	Population density (per km²)	Capital
'Eastern Europe:'
Armenia [4]	29,800 km²	3,000,000	?	Yerevan
Belarus	207,600	10,335,382	49.8	Minsk
Bulgaria[5]	110,910	7,322,858	68.4	Sofia
Czech Republic[5]	78,866	10,228,744	129.7	Prague
Hungary[5]	93,030	9,956,108	107	Budapest
Moldova[8]	33,843	4,320,490	127.6	Chişinău
Poland[5]	312,685	38,518,241	123.2	Warsaw
Romania[5]	238,391	22,276,056	93.4	Bucharest
Russia[11]	3,960,000	145,274,019	26.8	Moscow
Slovakia[5]	48,845	5,447,502	111.53	Bratislava
Ukraine[5]	603,700	46,299,862	76.7	Kiev
'Northern Europe:'
Åland (Finland)	1,552	26,008	16.8	Mariehamn
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
Guernsey[14]	78	64,587	828.0	St Peter Port
Iceland	103,000	307,261	2.7	Reykjavík
Republic of Ireland	70,280	4,234,925	60.3	Dublin
Isle of Man[15]	572	73,873	129.1	Douglas
Jersey[16]	116	89,775	773.9	Saint Helier
Latvia	64,589	2,366,515	36.6	Riga
Lithuania	65,200	3,601,138	55.2	Vilnius
Norway	324,220	4,525,116	14.0	Oslo
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (Norway)	62,049	2,868	0.046	Longyearbyen
Sweden	449,964	9,090,113	19.7	Stockholm
United Kingdom	244,820	59,201,000	244.2	London
'Southern Europe:'
Albania[5]	28,748	3,600,523	125.2	Tirana
Andorra	468	68,403	146.2	Andorra la Vella
Bosnia and Herzegovina[5]	51,129	4,552,198	89	Sarajevo
Croatia[5]	56,542	4,493,312	79.5	Zagreb
Gibraltar (UK)	5.9	27,714	4,697.3	Gibraltar
Greece[5]	131,940	10,706,291	81.1	Athens
Italy[5]	301,230	58,147,733	193	Rome
Republic of Macedonia[5]	25,333	2,055,915	81.1	Skopje
Malta	316	397,499	1,257.9	Valletta
Montenegro[23]	13,812	684,736	49.6	Podgorica
Portugal[24]	91,568	10,084,245	110.1	Lisbon
San Marino	61	27,730	454.6	San Marino
Serbia[25]	88,361	10,147,398	114.8	Belgrade
Slovenia[5]	20,273	2,009,245	99.1	Ljubljana
Spain[27]	498,506	40,077,100	80.4	Madrid
Vatican City	0.44	900	2,045.5	Vatican City
'Western Europe:'
Austria	83,858	8,169,929	97.4	Vienna
Belgium	30,510	10,274,595	336.8	Brussels
France[28]	547,030	59,765,983	109.3	Paris
Germany	357,021	83,251,851	233.2	Berlin
Liechtenstein	160	32,842	205.3	Vaduz
Luxembourg	2,586	448,569	173.5	Luxembourg
Monaco	1.95	31,987	16,403.6	Monaco
Netherlands[29]	41,526	16,318,199	393.0	Amsterdam
Switzerland	41,290	7,301,994	176.8	Bern
'Central Asia:'
Kazakhstan[30]	150,000	600,000	4.0	Astana
'Western Asia:'[31]
Azerbaijan[32]	86,6	8,581,487	105.7	Baku
Georgia[33]	49,240	2,447,176	49.7	Tbilisi
Turkey[34]	24,378	11,044,932	453.1	Ankara
Total	10,176,246[35]	709,608,850[36]	69.7

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.^[37]

Sex

There are slightly more men born than women, but men have a slightly shorter life span.

Religion

Main articles: Religion in Europe

Religion in Europe spans approximately 50,000 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

Main articles: Languages of Europe

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.^[38] According to the same source, the seven most natively spoken languages in the EU are (percentage of total European population^[39]):

# 18% German
# 13% English
# 13% Italian
# 12% French
# 9% Spanish
# 9% Polish
# 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:^[40]
# 51% English
# 32% German
# 26% French
# 16% Italian
# 15% Spanish
# 10% Polish
# 7% Russian
# 6% Dutch
This makes German the most frequently spoken native language and English the most frequently 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, Germany, Italy and Spain.^[41]
[42]

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 and regional Jewish languages, Frisian, and Breton.^[43]

Occupation

See also

★ Demographics of the European Union

★ Area and population of European countries

★ European Union Statistics

★ Largest European metropolitan areas

★ Largest urban areas of the European Union

★ Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits

★ Genetic history of Europe

References

1. UNPP, 2004 Revision World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Population Database. United Nations Population Division, 2005. Last accessed October 25, 2006.
2. http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp
3. Continental regions as per . Depending on definitions, various territories cited below may be in one or both of Europe and Asia, Africa, or Oceania.

4. Market Mechanisms and the Health Sector in Central and Eastern Europe - Page 7 by Alexander S. Preker, Richard G. Feachem
5. Data for 2007.

6. Data for 2007.

7. Data for 2007.

8. Includes Transnistria, a region that has declared, and ''de facto'' achieved, independence; however, it is not recognised ''de jure'' by sovereign states.
Data for 2007.
9. Data for 2007.

10. Data for 2007.

11. Russia is generally considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe (UN region) and Asia, with European territory west of the Ural Mountains and both the Ural and Emba rivers; population and area figures are for European portion only.

12. Data for 2007.

13. Data for 2007.

14. Guernsey is a crown dependency affiliated with the United Kingdom.

15. Isle of Man is a crown dependency affiliated with the United Kingdom.

16. Jersey is a crown dependency affiliated with the United Kingdom.

17. Data for 2007.

18. Data for 2007.

19. Data for 2007.

20. Data for 2007.

21. Data for 2007.

22. Data for 2007.

23. Montenegro declared independence from the union of Serbia and Montenegro on 3 June, 2006.
Data for 2007.

24. Figures for Portugal include the Azores west of Portugal but exclude the Madeira Islands, west of Morocco in Africa.

25. Figures for Serbia include Kosovo and Metohia, a province administrated by the UN (UNMIK) as per Security Council resolution 1244.
Data from 2007.

26. Data for 2007.

27. Figures for Spain exclude the Canary Islands, west of Morocco in Africa, and the exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which are on the northwest of the African continent.

28. Figures for France include only metropolitan France: some politically integral parts of France are geographically located outside Europe.

29. Netherlands population for July 2004. Population and area details include European portion only: Netherlands and two entities outside Europe (Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, in the Caribbean) constitute the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Amsterdam is the official capital, while The Hague is the administrative seat.

30. Kazakhstan is sometimes considered a transcontinental country in Central Asia (UN region) and Eastern Europe, with European territory west of the Ural Mountains and both the Ural and Emba rivers; area figures are for European portion out of total.

31. Armenia and Cyprus are sometimes considered transcontinental countries: both are physiographically in Western Asia but have historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe.
32. Azerbaijan is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia (UN region) and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for European portion (north of the crest of the Caucasus and the Kura River) out of total. This excludes the exclave of Nakhichevan and Nagorno-Karabakh (a region that has declared, and ''de facto'' achieved, independence; however, it is not recognised ''de jure'' by sovereign states).

33. Georgia is often considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia (UN region) and Eastern Europe; population and area figures are for European portion (north of the crest of the Caucasus and the Kura River) out of total. Also includes Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that have declared, and ''de facto'' achieved, independence; however, they are not recognised ''de jure'' by sovereign states.
34. Turkey is generally considered a transcontinental country in Western Asia (UN region) and Southern Europe: the region of Rumelia (Trakya) – which includes the provinces of Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ, and the western parts of the Çanakkale and Istanbul Provinces – is west and north of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles; population and area figures are for European portion (including all of Istanbul) out of total population.

35. The total area figure includes only European portions of transcontinental countries.
36. The total population figure includes only European portions of transcontinental countries.
37. United Nations Population Division, ''World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Highlights.'' 2005
38. http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html#Official%20eu
39. see http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html#languages%20of%20EU%2015 for full list
40. see http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html#Foreign%20language%20skills for full list
41. http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/barolang_en.pdf
42. http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html#EU%20and%20new%20memberstates
43. http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/europe_index.html