Figures for the population of Europe vary according to which definition of European boundaries is used. The population within the standard physical geographical boundaries was 731 million in 2005 according the United Nations. In 2009 the population is 831.4 million, using a definition which includes the whole of the transcontinental countries of Russia and Turkey. Population growth is comparatively slow, and median age comparatively high in relation to the world's other continents.

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 Poland, access to abortion is currently limited and entirely illegal in Ireland and the Mediterranean nation of Malta. In the past, such restrictions and also restrictions on artificial birth control were commonplace throughout Europe. Furthermore, some European countries (currently Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland) have allowed a limited form of voluntary euthanasia. It remains to be seen how much demographic impact this may have.

Total population

In 2009 the population of Europe was estimated to be 830.4 million according to the United Nations, which was slightly more than 12% of world population. The precise figure depends on the exact definition of the geographic extent of Europe. The population of the EU was 499 million as of 2008. Non-EU countries situated in Europe in their entirety account for another 94 million. Five trans-continental countries have a total of 240 million people, of which about half reside in Europe proper.

A century ago, Europe was home to 25% of the world's population. While the population of the continent has grown, it hasn't come close to the pace of Asia or Africa. As it stands now, around 12% of the world's people live on this continent, but if demographic trends keep their pace, Europe's share may fall to around 7% in 2050. Declining birth rates (primarily in Eastern and Roman Catholic Europe)and a high life expectancy in most European states means that the aging and declining population will be a problem for many European economies, political and social institutions.

Death rates in the Eastern Bloc have fallen dramatically over the last decade, especially in Russia. It has been predicted with better living standards, a more vibrant economy and better social institutions, that Russia, (whose population fell from 147 million in 1991 to 142 million in 2009) may start to stabilize and grow in the next couple years. Northern and Western Europe have generally stronger growth than their Southern and Eastern counterparts. Turkey, Albania and Ireland have strong growth, all hitting 1%.

Population by country

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)	1,551	26,008	16.8	Mariehamn
Albania	28,748	3,600,523	125.2	Tirana
Andorra	468	82,403	146.2	Andorra la Vella
Austria	83,858	8,469,929	97.4	Vienna
Armenia	29,800	3,029,900	101	Yerevan
Azerbaijan	86,600	8,521,000	97	Baku
Belarus	207,600	9,735,382	49.8	Minsk
Belgium	30,510	10,574,595	336.8	Brussels
Bosnia and Herzegovina	51,129	4,048,500	77.5	Sarajevo
Bulgaria	110,910	7,621,337	68.7	Sofia
Croatia	56,542	4,637,460	77.7	Zagreb
Cyprus	9,251	863,457	85	Nicosia
Czech Republic	78,866	10,256,760	130.1	Prague
Denmark	43,094	5,568,854	124.6	Copenhagen
Estonia	45,226	1,315,681	31.3	Tallinn
Faroe Islands (Denmark)	1,399	46,011	32.9	Tórshavn
Finland	336,593	5,357,537	15.3	Helsinki
France	547,030	65,165,983	109.3	Paris
Georgia	69,700	4,461,473	64	Tbilisi
Germany	357,021	82,551,851	233.2	Berlin
Gibraltar (UK)	5.9	27,714	4,697.3	Gibraltar
Greece	131,940	11,245,343	80.7	Athens
Guernsey	78	64,587	828.0	St. Peter Port
Hungary	93,030	10,075,034	108.3	Budapest
Iceland	103,000	304,261	2.7	Reykjavík
Ireland	70,280	4,434,925	60.3	Dublin
Isle of Man	572	73,873	129.1	Douglas
Italy	301,230	60,051,711	191.6	Rome
Jersey	116	89,775	773.9	Saint Helier
Latvia	64,589	2,366,515	36.6	Riga
Liechtenstein	160	35,322	205.3	Vaduz
Lithuania	65,200	3,401,138	55.2	Vilnius
Luxembourg	2,586	472,569	173.5	Luxembourg
Republic of Macedonia	25,333	2,054,800	81.1	Skopje
Malta	316	408,009	1,257.9	Valletta
Moldova	33,843	3,834,547	131.0	Chişinău
Monaco	1.95	32,087	16,403.6	Monaco
Montenegro	13,812	598,258	44.6	Podgorica
Netherlands	41,526	16,518,199	393.0	Amsterdam
Norway	324,220	4,725,116	14.0	Oslo
Poland	312,685	38,125,478	123.5	Warsaw
Portugal	91,568	10,709,995	110.1	Lisbon
Romania	238,391	21,398,181	91.0	Bucharest
Russia	17,075,400	141,800,000	26.8	Moscow
San Marino	61	31,730	454.6	San Marino
Serbia	88,361	9,963,742	109.4	Belgrade
Slovakia	48,845	5,422,366	111.0	Bratislava
Slovenia	20,273	2,012,917	95.3	Ljubljana
Spain	504,851	46,061,274	89.3	Madrid
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (Norway)	62,049	2,868	0.046	Longyearbyen
Sweden	449,964	9,290,113	19.7	Stockholm
Switzerland	41,290	7,507,000	176.8	Bern
Turkey	783,562	75,886,256	93	Ankara
Ukraine	603,700	45,996,470	80.2	Kiev
United Kingdom	244,820	61,600,835	244.2	London
Vatican City	0.44	900	2,045.5	Vatican City
Total	10,180,000	830,364,178	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

[[File:Europe religion map en.png|thumb|250px|Predominant religions in Europe

]]

Today, theism is losing prevalence in Europe in favour of atheism, and religion is losing prevalence in favour of secularism. European countries have experienced a decline in church attendance, as well as a decline in the number of people professing a belief in a god. The Eurobarometer Poll 2005found that, on average, 52% of the citizens of EU member states state that they believe in a god, 27% believe there is some sort of spirit or life Force while 18% do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god or Life Force, and 3% declined to answer. According to a recent study (Dogan, Mattei, Religious Beliefs in Europe: Factors of Accelerated Decline), 47% of Frenchmen declared themselves as agnostic in 2003. This situation is often called "Post-Christian Europe".

A decrease in religiousness and church attendance in western Europe (especially Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden) has been noted, but there is an increase in Eastern Europe, especially in Greece and Romania (2% in 1 year). The Eurobarometer poll must be taken with caution, however, as there are discrepancies between it and national census results. For example in the United Kingdom, the 2001 census revealed over 70% of the population regarded themselves as "Christian" with only 15% professing to have "no religion", though the wording of the question has been criticized as "leading" by the British Humanist Association.

Ethnic groups

The largest ethnic groups of Europe are the Russians (with some 90 million settling in the European parts of Russia), followed by the Germans (80 million), French (65 million), British (61 million), Italians (60 million), Ukrainians (45 million) , Spanish (44 million) and the Poles (40 million). The smallest ethnic group in Europe are the Maltese: Malta has a population of 419,285 and 95.3% is ethnically Maltese.

Non-European immigrant groups (Middle Eastern, African, Asian etc.) accountfor about 3% to 4% of the European population or 22 to 30 million people.

Language

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

1. 19% German
2. 13% French
3. 12% English
4. 11% Italian
5. 9% Spanish
6. 9% Polish
7. 6% Romanian
8. 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. 49% English
2. 35% 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 spoken non-native 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, Lithuania and Finland are the EU countries with the most foreign language skills. This refers to all foreign languages. English is spoken most frequently in the UK, Ireland, 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 and Cornish. Nearly extinct and seriously endangered languages include several Sami, Frisian, Tsakonian and Breton.

Genetic origins

Homo sapiens appeared in Europe roughly 40,000 years ago, with the settlement of the Cro-magnons. 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 skin, variability in eye and hair colour, and a number of biochemical similarities.

MtDna and Y-Dna

Studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have suggested substantial genetic homogeneity of European populations , with only a few geographic or linguistic isolates appearing to be genetic isolates as well . On the other hand, analyses of the Y chromosome

and of autosomal diversity  have shown a general gradient of genetic similarity running from the southeast to the northwest of the continent.

But, well-known areas with Mt-Dna and Y-Dna differences, discovered by grouping and tracking prehistorical genotype migrations, are in Iberia, in relation to the Basques of northern Spain and southwest France; and the Balkans of southeast Europe. Both were areas of refuge where early modern humans settled over 50,000 years ago, during the last ice age.

Population structure

A very recent study in May 2009 that studied 19 populations from Europe using 270,000 SNPs highlighted the genetic diversity of European populations corresponding to the northwest to southeast gradient and distinguished "four several distinct regions" within Europe:

• Finland, in relation to the Saami.
• the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), western Russia and eastern Poland.
• Central and Western Europe.
• Italy, South-Eastern Europe, Southern Russia.

In this study, Fst (Fixation index) was found to correlate considerably with geographic distances ranging from ≤0.0010 for neighbouring populations to 0.0230 for Southern Italy and Finland. For comparisons, pair-wise Fst of non-European samples were as follows: Europeans – Africans (Yoruba) 0.1530; Europeans – Chinese 0.1100; Africans (Yoruba) – Chinese 0.1900 .

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
• Classical demography
• Medieval demography
• Ethnic groups in Europe
• European diasporas

Notes

References

1. Albania 3.6, Belarus 10.3, Bosnia and Herzegovina 4.4, Croatia 4.4, Iceland 0.3, Republic of Macedonia 2.0, Moldova 4.4, Norway 4.5, Serbia+Kosovo 9.7, Switzerland 7.5, Ukraine 45.4
2. Russia 142, Kazakhstan 15.2, Turkey 70.5, Georgia 4.7, Azerbaijan 8.6
3. United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Highlights. 2005
4. Census 2011
5. http://www.populstat.info/Europe/maltag.htm
6. EUROPA - Education and Training - Languages in Europe
7. see http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html#languages%20of%20EU%2015 for full list
8. see http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/index_en.html#Foreign%20language%20skills for full list
9. Eurobarometer 54 Special - Europeans and languages
10. EUROPA - Education and Training - Languages in Europe
11. Endangered languages in Europe: indexes
12. Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Europe : The people".
13. Europe, Encyclopædia Britannica Online
14. Torroni A, Achilli A, Macaulay V, Richards M, Bandelt HJ (2006) Harvesting the fruit of the human mtDNA tree. Trends Genet 22: 339–345
15. Simoni L, Calafell F, Pettener D, Bertranpetit J, Barbujani G (2000) Geographic patterns of mtDNA diversity in Europe. Am J Hum Genet 66: 262–278
16. Chikhi L, Nichols RA, Barbujani G, Beaumont MA (2002) Y genetic data support the Neolithic demic diffusion model. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99: 11008–11013
17. Roewer L, Croucher PJ, Willuweit S, Lu TT, Kayser M, et al. (2005) Signature of recent historical events in the European Y-chromosomal STR haplotype distribution. Hum Genet 116: 279–291
18. Barbujani G, Goldstein DB (2004) Africans and Asians abroad: genetic diversity in Europe. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 5: 119–150
19. Genetic Structure of Europeans: A View from the North–East, Nelis et al. 2009
20. Pair-wise Fst between European samples

External links