Europe - Total population
Population and migration
978-3-14-100890-6 | Page 69 | Ill. 5
Overview
Europe's most populous countries tend to be in the west, while the east, with the exception of Russia, the south, Scandinavia and the southeast (except Turkey) tend to be less populated. The continent as a whole has about 750 million people.
Population statistics
In 2020, the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) had a population of around 447 million. The five most populous EU members were Germany (83.1 million), France (67.3 million), Italy (59.6 million), Spain (47.3 million) and Poland (37.9). In 2017, these five countries had a combined population of 295.2 million. This corresponded to a share of 66.0 per cent of the total population of the EU and 40% of the whole continent’s population. If the next five most populous states - Romania, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Greece - are added, the share of the EU population rises to 82.0 per cent. They make up almost 50 percent of Europe. Liechtenstein (38,700), Iceland (364,134) and Malta are the least populated EU members. The first ten countries thus already account for the majority of the EU population and half of the continent’s population. Other countries with large populations are outside the EU. These include Russia, Ukraine (41.7 million), and Turkey (83.1 million).
