Overview

The population distribution of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, shown as average number of inhabitants per square kilometre, almost resembles the continuation of an arch or else the famous "blue banana" from the densly populated continental Belgium and Northern France (see Southeastern corner of the map clip), over the Strait of Dover into Southeast England towards London and then onwards into the Midlands (Birmingham) and the North of England (from Liverpool on the Irish Sea coast to Kingston upon Hull on the North Sea coast) and phasing out in the Northeast of England (Newcastle), Northern Ireland (Belfast) and Dublin, the capital of the Irish Republic. These outer, already peripheral agglomerations then pass over into a very sparsely populated Western and Northwestern fringe, which covers most of Ireland except the East coast, as well as Scotland except the lowlands between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Here we are already in the outer reaches of the European continent, followed by sets of coastal islands, some of which are at greater distance from the mainland (Outer Hebrides, Orkney Islands).