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Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary (with borders).svg
Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary.svg
Area10,180,000 km2 (3,930,000 sq mi)[1]  (6th)[a]
Population746,419,440 (2018; 3rd)[2][3]
Population density72.9/km2 (188/sq mi) (2nd)
GDP (PPP)$30.37 trillion (2021 est; 2nd)[4]
GDP (nominal)$23.05 trillion (2021 est; 3rd)[5]
GDP per capita$31,020 (2021 est; 3rd)[c][6]
HDIIncrease 0.845[7]
Countries50 sovereign states
6 with limited recognition
Dependencies6 dependencies
LanguagesMost common first languages:
Time zonesUTC−1 to UTC+5
Largest citiesLargest urban areas:
  • a. ^ Figures include only European portions of transcontinental countries.[n]
  • b. ^ Istanbul is a transcontinental city which straddles both Europe and Asia.
  • c. ^ "Europe" as defined by the International Monetary Fund.

Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It comprises the westernmost peninsulas of the continental landmass of Eurasia,[10] and is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.[11] Although much of this border is over land, Europe is generally accorded the status of a full continent because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions.

Europe covers about 10,180,000 km2 (3,930,000 sq mi), or 2% of the Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states, of which Russia is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 746 million (about 10% of the world population) in 2018.[2][3] The European climate is largely affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast.

European culture is the root of Western civilization, which traces its lineage back to ancient Greece and ancient Rome.[12][13] The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and the subsequent Migration Period marked the end of Europe's ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art and science led to the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery, started by Portugal and Spain, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonized at various times the Americas, almost all of Africa and Oceania, and the majority of Asia.


In 1949, the Council of Europe was founded with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals and prevent future wars. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union (EU), a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.[15] The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The currency of most countries of the European Union, the euro, is the most commonly used among Europeans; and the EU's Schengen Area abolishes border and immigration controls between most of its member states and some non-members states. There exists a political movement favouring the evolution of the European Union into a single federation encompassing much of the continent.


Statue representing Europa at Palazzo Ferreria, in Valletta, Malta

In classical Greek mythology, Europa (Ancient Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē) was a Phoenician princess. One view is that her name derives from the Ancient Greek elements εὐρύς (eurús) 'wide, broad' and ὤψ (ōps, gen. ὠπός, ōpós) 'eye, face, countenance', hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean 'wide-gazing' or 'broad of aspect'.[16][17][18][19] Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it.[16] An alternative view is that of Robert Beekes, who has argued in favour of a Pre-Indo-European origin for the name, explaining that a derivation from eurus would yield a different toponym than Europa. Beekes has located toponyms related to that of Europa in the territory of ancient Greece and localities such as that of Europos in ancient Macedonia.[20]

There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to a Semitic term for west, this being either Akkadian erebu meaning 'to go down, set' (said of the sun) or Phoenician 'ereb 'evening, west',[21] which is at the origin of Arabic maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav. Michael A. Barry finds the mention of the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of 'night, [the country of] sunset', in opposition to Asu '[the country of] sunrise', i.e. Asia. The same naming motive according to "cartographic convention" appears in Greek Ἀνατολή (EurṓpēAnatolḗ}} '[sun] rise', 'east', hence Anatolia).[22] Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor",[23] while Beekes considers a connection to Semitic languages improbable.[20]

Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲/欧洲), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated name Ōuluóbā zhōu (歐羅巴洲) (zhōu means "continent"); a similar Chinese-derived term Ōshū (欧州) is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, Ōshū Rengō (欧州連合), despite the katakana Yōroppa (ヨーロッパ) being more commonly used. In some Turkic languages, the originally Persian name Frangistan ('land of the Franks') is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa.[24]


Contemporary definition






History of the concept

Early history

Depiction of Europa regina ('Queen Europe') in 1582.


The convention received by the Middle Ages and surviving into modern usage is that of the Roman era used by Roman era authors such as Posidonius,[33] Strabo[34] and Ptolemy,[35] who took the Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary.



Modern definitions






In Russia and the Soviet Union, the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906.[43] In 1958, the Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from Baydaratskaya Bay, on the Kara Sea, along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the Ural River until the Mugodzhar Hills, and then the Emba River; and Kuma–Manych Depression,[44] thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe.[45] However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest[46] and this became the common convention in the later 20th century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps.

Some view separation of Eurasia into Asia and Europe as a residue of Eurocentrism: "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country. [...]."[47]



Paleolithic cave paintings from Lascaux in France (c 15,000 BC)
Stonehenge in the United Kingdom (Late Neolithic from 3000 to 2000 BC).

Homo erectus georgicus, which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in Georgia, is the earliest hominin to have been discovered in Europe.[48] Other hominin remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in Atapuerca, Spain.[49] Neanderthal man (named after the Neandertal valley in Germany) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago (115,000 years ago it is found already in the territory of present-day Poland[50]) and disappeared from the fossil record about 28,000 years ago, with their final refuge being present-day Portugal. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans (Cro-Magnons), who appeared in Europe around 43,000 to 40,000 years ago.[51] The earliest sites in Europe dated 48,000 years ago are Riparo Mochi (Italy), Geissenklösterle (Germany), and Isturitz (France)[52][53]

The European Neolithic period—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock, increased numbers of settlements and the widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BCE in Greece and the Balkans, probably influenced by earlier farming practices in Anatolia and the Near East.[54] It spread from the Balkans along the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine (Linear Pottery culture) and along the Mediterranean coast (Cardial culture). Between 4500 and 3000 BC, these central European neolithic cultures developed further to the west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in producing copper artifacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such as causewayed enclosures, burial mounds and megalithic tombs.[55] The Corded Ware cultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic. During this period giant megalithic monuments, such as the Megalithic Temples of Malta and Stonehenge, were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe.[56][57]

The European Bronze Age began c. 3200 BCE in Greece with the Minoan civilisation on Crete, the first advanced civilisation in Europe.[58] The Minoans were followed by the Myceneans, who collapsed suddenly around 1200 BCE, ushering the European Iron Age.[59] Iron Age colonisation by the Greeks and Phoenicians gave rise to early Mediterranean cities. Early Iron Age Italy and Greece from around the 8th century BCE gradually gave rise to historical Classical antiquity, whose beginning is sometimes dated to 776 BCE, the year of the first Olympic Games.[60]

Classical antiquity

The Parthenon in Athens (432 BCE)

Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western democratic and rationalist culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece.[61] The Greek city-state, the polis, was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece.[61] In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes instituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens.[62] The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: in philosophy, humanism and rationalism under Aristotle, Socrates and Plato; in history with Herodotus and Thucydides; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with the epic poems of Homer;[63] in drama with Sophocles and Euripides, in medicine with Hippocrates and Galen; and in science with Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes.[64][65][66] In the course of the 5th century BC, several of the Greek city states would ultimately check the Achaemenid Persian advance in Europe through the Greco-Persian Wars, considered a pivotal moment in world history,[67] as the 50 years of peace that followed are known as Golden Age of Athens, the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilisation.

In 500 BCE, Rome was a small city-state on the Italian Peninsula

Greece was followed by Rome, which left its mark on law, politics, language, engineering, architecture, government and many more key aspects in western civilisation.[61] By 200 BCE, Rome had conquered Italy, and over the following two centuries it conquered Greece and Hispania (Spain and Portugal), the North African coast, much of the Middle East, Gaul (France and Belgium), and Britannia (England and Wales).

Expanding from their base in central Italy beginning in the third century BCE, the Romans gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean Basin and Western Europe by the turn of the millennium. The Roman Republic ended in 27 BCE, when Augustus proclaimed the Roman Empire. The two centuries that followed are known as the pax romana, a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity, and political stability in most of Europe.[68] The empire continued to expand under emperors such as Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, who spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting Germanic, Pictish and Scottish tribes.[69][70] Christianity was legalised by Constantine I in 313 CE after three centuries of imperial persecution. Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city of Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour (modern-day Istanbul) in 330 CE. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 CE, and in 391–392 CE, the emperor Theodosius outlawed pagan religions.[71] This is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE; the closure of the pagan Platonic Academy of Athens in 529 CE;[72] or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century CE.

Early Middle Ages

Europe c. 650
Charlemagne's empire in 814:      Francia,      Tributaries




From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouring Sasanid Persians were severely weakened due to the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent Byzantine–Sasanian wars, the Muslim Arabs began to make inroads into historically Roman territory, taking the Levant and North Africa and making inroads into Asia Minor. In the mid 7th century CE, following the Muslim conquest of Persia, Islam penetrated into the Caucasus region.[76] Over the next centuries Muslim forces took Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily and parts of southern Italy.[77] Between 711 and 720, most of the lands of the Visigothic Kingdom of Iberia was brought under Muslim rule — save for small areas in the northwest (Asturias) and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees. This territory, under the Arabic name Al-Andalus, became part of the expanding Umayyad Caliphate. The unsuccessful second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by the Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732, which ended their northward advance. In the remote regions of north-western Iberia and the middle Pyrenees the power of the Muslims in the south was scarcely felt. It was here that the foundations of the Christian kingdoms of Asturias, Leon and Galicia were laid and from where the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula would start. However, no coordinated attempt would be made to drive the Moors out. The Christian kingdoms were mainly focussed on their own internal power struggles. As a result, the Reconquista took the greater part of eight hundred years, in which period a long list of Alfonsos, Sanchos, Ordoños, Ramiros, Fernandos and Bermudos would be fighting their Christian rivals as much as the Muslim invaders.


During the Dark Ages, the Western Roman Empire fell under the control of various tribes. The Germanic and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe respectively.[78] Eventually the Frankish tribes were united under Clovis I.[79] Charlemagne, a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty who had conquered most of Western Europe, was anointed "Holy Roman Emperor" by the Pope in 800. This led in 962 to the founding of the Holy Roman Empire, which eventually became centred in the German principalities of central Europe.[80]

East Central Europe saw the creation of the first Slavic states and the adoption of Christianity (circa 1000 CE). The powerful West Slavic state of Great Moravia spread its territory all the way south to the Balkans, reaching its largest territorial extent under Svatopluk I and causing a series of armed conflicts with East Francia. Further south, the first South Slavic states emerged in the late 7th and 8th century and adopted Christianity: the First Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Principality (later Kingdom and Empire), and the Duchy of Croatia (later Kingdom of Croatia). To the East, the Kievan Rus expanded from its capital in Kyiv to become the largest state in Europe by the 10th century. In 988, Vladimir the Great adopted Orthodox Christianity as the religion of state.[81][82] Further East, Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in the 10th century, but was eventually absorbed into Russia several centuries later.[83]

High and Late Middle Ages

The maritime republics of medieval Italy reestablished contacts between Europe, Asia and Africa with extensive trade networks and colonies across the Mediterranean, and had an essential role in the Crusades.[84][85]

The period between the year 1000 and 1250 is known as the High Middle Ages, followed by the Late Middle Ages until c. 1500.


The Middle Ages on the mainland were dominated by the two upper echelons of the social structure: the nobility and the clergy. Feudalism developed in France in the Early Middle Ages and soon spread throughout Europe.[86] A struggle for influence between the nobility and the monarchy in England led to the writing of the Magna Carta and the establishment of a parliament.[87] The primary source of culture in this period came from the Roman Catholic Church. Through monasteries and cathedral schools, the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe.[86]


In the east a resurgent Byzantine Empire recaptured Crete and Cyprus from the Muslims and reconquered the Balkans. Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to the 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000.[90] The Empire was weakened following the defeat at Manzikert and was weakened considerably by the sack of Constantinople in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade.[91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99] Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261, Byzantium fell in 1453 when Constantinople was taken by the Ottoman Empire.[100][101][102]


In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Pechenegs and the Cuman-Kipchaks, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east.[103] Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the Mongols.[104] The invaders, who became known as Tatars, were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They established the state of the Golden Horde with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a religion and ruled over modern-day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries.[105][106] After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th century: Moldavia and Walachia. Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans.[107] From the 12th to the 15th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Moscow grew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480 and eventually becoming the Tsardom of Russia. The state was consolidated under Ivan III the Great and Ivan the Terrible, steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries.

The Great Famine of 1315–1317 was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages.[108] The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of France was reduced by half.[109][110] Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines,[111] and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period.[112] Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of the European population at the time.[113]

The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased persecution of Jews, beggars, and lepers.[114] The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 18th century.[115] During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe.[116]

Early modern period

The School of Athens by Raphael (1511): Contemporaries such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (centre) are portrayed as classical scholars of the Renaissance.

The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Florence and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The rise of a new humanism was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten classical Greek and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries, often translated from Arabic into Latin.[117][118][119] The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of art, philosophy, music, and the sciences, under the joint patronage of royalty, the nobility, the Roman Catholic Church, and an emerging merchant class.[120][121][122] Patrons in Italy, including the Medici family of Florentine bankers and the Popes in Rome, funded prolific quattrocento and cinquecento artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.[123][124]

Political intrigue within the Church in the mid-14th century caused the Western Schism. During this forty-year period, two popes—one in Avignon and one in Rome—claimed rulership over the Church. Although the schism was eventually healed in 1417, the papacy's spiritual authority had suffered greatly.[125] In the 15th century, Europe started to extend itself beyond its geographic frontiers. Spain and Portugal, the greatest naval powers of the time, took the lead in exploring the world.[126][127] Exploration reached the Southern Hemisphere in the Atlantic and the Southern tip of Africa. Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, and Vasco da Gama opened the ocean route to the East linking the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in 1498. Ferdinand Magellan reached Asia westward across the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans in the Spanish expedition of Magellan-Elcano, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the globe, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano (1519–1522). Soon after, the Spanish and Portuguese began establishing large global empires in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania.[128] France, the Netherlands and England soon followed in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. A year later England tried unsuccessfully to invade Spain, allowing Philip II of Spain to maintain his dominant war capacity in Europe. This English decisive disaster also allowed the Spanish fleet to retain its capability to wage war for the next decades.[129][130][131][132]

Habsburg dominions in the centuries following their partition by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Spain's principal military base in Europe was the Duchy of Milan.[133]

The Church's power was further weakened by the Protestant Reformation in 1517 when German theologian Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses criticising the selling of indulgences to the church door. He was subsequently excommunicated in the papal bull Exsurge Domine in 1520, and his followers were condemned in the 1521 Diet of Worms, which divided German princes between Protestant and Roman Catholic faiths.[134] Religious fighting and warfare spread with Protestantism.[135] The plunder of the empires of the Americas allowed Spain to finance religious persecution in Europe for over a century.[136] The Thirty Years War (1618–1648) crippled the Holy Roman Empire and devastated much of Germany, killing between 25 and 40 percent of its population.[137] In the aftermath of the Peace of Westphalia, France rose to predominance within Europe.[138]

The 17th century in central and parts of eastern Europe was a period of general decline;[139] the region experienced more than 150 famines in a 200-year period between 1501 and 1700.[140] From the Union of Krewo (1385) east-central Europe was dominated by the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The hegemony of the vast Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had ended with the devastation brought by the Second Northern War (Deluge) and subsequent conflicts;[141] the state itself was partitioned and ceased to exist at the end of the 18th century.[142]

From the 15th to 18th centuries, when the disintegrating khanates of the Golden Horde were conquered by Russia, Tatars from the Crimean Khanate frequently raided Eastern Slavic lands to capture slaves.[143] Further east, the Nogai Horde and Kazakh Khanate frequently raided the Slavic-speaking areas of contemporary Russia and Ukraine for hundreds of years, until the Russian expansion and conquest of most of northern Eurasia (i.e. Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia).

The Renaissance and the New Monarchs marked the start of an Age of Discovery, a period of exploration, invention, and scientific development.[144] Among the great figures of the Western scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries were Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Isaac Newton.[145] According to Peter Barrett, "It is widely accepted that 'modern science' arose in the Europe of the 17th century (towards the end of the Renaissance), introducing a new understanding of the natural world."[117]

18th and 19th centuries

The national boundaries within Europe set by the Congress of Vienna

The Age of Enlightenment was a powerful intellectual movement during the 18th century promoting scientific and reason-based thoughts.[146][147][148] Discontent with the aristocracy and clergy's monopoly on political power in France resulted in the French Revolution and the establishment of the First Republic as a result of which the monarchy and many of the nobility perished during the initial reign of terror.[149] Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power in the aftermath of the French Revolution and established the First French Empire that, during the Napoleonic Wars, grew to encompass large parts of Europe before collapsing in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo.[150][151] Napoleonic rule resulted in the further dissemination of the ideals of the French Revolution, including that of the nation-state, as well as the widespread adoption of the French models of administration, law, and education.[152][153][154] The Congress of Vienna, convened after Napoleon's downfall, established a new balance of power in Europe centred on the five "Great Powers": the UK, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia.[155] This balance would remain in place until the Revolutions of 1848, during which liberal uprisings affected all of Europe except for Russia and the UK. These revolutions were eventually put down by conservative elements and few reforms resulted.[156] The year 1859 saw the unification of Romania, as a nation-state, from smaller principalities. In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian empire was formed; and 1871 saw the unifications of both Italy and Germany as nation-states from smaller principalities.[157]



The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain in the last part of the 18th century and spread throughout Europe. The invention and implementation of new technologies resulted in rapid urban growth, mass employment, and the rise of a new working class.[159] Reforms in social and economic spheres followed, including the first laws on child labour, the legalisation of trade unions,[160] and the abolition of slavery.[161] In Britain, the Public Health Act of 1875 was passed, which significantly improved living conditions in many British cities.[162] Europe's population increased from about 100 million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900.[163] The last major famine recorded in Western Europe, the Great Famine of Ireland, caused death and mass emigration of millions of Irish people.[164] In the 19th century, 70 million people left Europe in migrations to various European colonies abroad and to the United States.[165] Demographic growth meant that, by 1900, Europe's share of the world's population was 25%.[166]

20th century to the present

Map of European colonial empires throughout the world in 1914.

Two world wars and an economic depression dominated the first half of the 20th century. World War I was fought between 1914 and 1918. It started when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by the Yugoslav nationalist[167] Gavrilo Princip.[168] Most European nations were drawn into the war, which was fought between the Entente Powers (France, Belgium, Serbia, Portugal, Russia, the United Kingdom, and later Italy, Greece, Romania, and the United States) and the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire). The war left more than 16 million civilians and military dead.[169] Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilised from 1914 to 1918.[170]


Russia was plunged into the Russian Revolution, which threw down the Tsarist monarchy and replaced it with the communist Soviet Union.[171] Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire collapsed and broke up into separate nations, and many other nations had their borders redrawn. The Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I in 1919, was harsh towards Germany, upon whom it placed full responsibility for the war and imposed heavy sanctions.[172] Excess deaths in Russia over the course of World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the postwar famine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million.[173] In 1932–1933, under Stalin's leadership, confiscations of grain by the Soviet authorities contributed to the second Soviet famine which caused millions of deaths;[174] surviving kulaks were persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labour. Stalin was also responsible for the Great Purge of 1937–38 in which the NKVD executed 681,692 people;[175] millions of people were deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union.[176]

Serbian war efforts (1914–1918) cost the country one quarter of its population.[177][178][179][180][181]



Bombed and burned-out buildings in Hamburg, 1944/45


In May 1940, Germany attacked France through the Low Countries. France capitulated in June 1940. By August, Germany began a bombing offensive on Britain, but failed to convince the Britons to give up.[187] In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.[188] On 7 December 1941 Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the conflict as allies of the British Empire and other allied forces.[189][190]


After the staggering Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a continual fallback. The Battle of Kursk, which involved the largest tank battle in history, was the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front. In June 1944, British and American forces invaded France in the D-Day landings, opening a new front against Germany. Berlin finally fell in 1945, ending World War II in Europe. The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with 60 million dead across the world.[191] More than 40 million people in Europe had died as a result of World War II,[192] including between 11 and 17 million people who perished during the Holocaust.[193] The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people (mostly civilians) during the war, about half of all World War II casualties.[194] By the end of World War II, Europe had more than 40 million refugees.[195] Several post-war expulsions in Central and Eastern Europe displaced a total of about 20 million people,[196] in particular, German-speakers from all over Eastern Europe.

World War I and especially World War II diminished the eminence of Western Europe in world affairs. After World War II the map of Europe was redrawn at the Yalta Conference and divided into two blocs, the Western countries and the communist Eastern bloc, separated by what was later called by Winston Churchill an "Iron Curtain". The United States and Western Europe established the NATO alliance and later the Soviet Union and Central Europe established the Warsaw Pact.[197] Particular hot spots after the Second World War were Berlin and Trieste, whereby the Free Territory of Trieste, founded in 1947 with the UN, was dissolved in 1954 and 1975 respectively. The Berlin blockade in 1948 and 1949 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 were one of the great international crises of the Cold War.[198][199][200]


Flag of Europe, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955 as the flag for the whole of Europe.[201]

In the 1980s the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Solidarity movement in Poland weakened the previously rigid communist system. The opening of the Iron Curtain at the Pan-European Picnic then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which the Eastern bloc, the Warsaw Pact and communism collapsed and the Cold War ended.[202][203][204] Germany was reunited, after the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the maps of Central and Eastern Europe were redrawn once more.[205] This made old previously interrupted cultural and economic relationships possible and previously isolated cities such as Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Trieste were now again in the center of Europe.[182][206][207][208]

European integration also grew after World War II. In 1949 the Council of Europe was founded, following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill, with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals. It includes all European states except for Belarus and Vatican City. The Treaty of Rome in 1957 established the European Economic Community between six Western European states with the goal of a unified economic policy and common market.[209] In 1967 the EEC, European Coal and Steel Community and Euratom formed the European Community, which in 1993 became the European Union. The EU established a parliament, court and central bank and introduced the euro as a unified currency.[210] Between 2004 and 2013, more Central and Eastern European countries began joining, expanding the EU to 28 European countries, and once more making Europe a major economical and political centre of power.[211] However, the United Kingdom withdrew from the EU on 31 January 2020, as a result of a June 2016 referendum on EU membership.[212]



Europe makes up the western fifth of the Eurasian landmass.[26] It has a higher ratio of coast to landmass than any other continent or subcontinent.[213] Its maritime borders consist of the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas to the south.[214] Land relief in Europe shows great variation within relatively small areas. The southern regions are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high Alps, Pyrenees, and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. This extended lowland is known as the Great European Plain, and at its heart lies the North German Plain. An arc of uplands also exists along the north-western seaboard, which begins in the western parts of the islands of Britain and Ireland, and then continues along the mountainous, fjord-cut spine of Norway.



Biomes of Europe and surrounding regions:
     tundra      alpine tundra      taiga      montane forest
     temperate broadleaf forest      mediterranean forest      temperate steppe      dry steppe


Therefore, the average temperature throughout the year of Aveiro is 16 °C (61 °F), while it is only 13 °C (55 °F) in New York City which is almost on the same latitude, bordering the same ocean. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in far southeastern Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin average around 8 °C (14 °F) higher than those in Calgary, and they are almost 22 °C (40 °F) higher than average temperatures in Irkutsk.[215]

The large water masses of the Mediterranean Sea, which equalize the temperatures on an annual and daily average, are also of particular importance. The water of the Mediterranean extends from the Sahara desert to the Alpine arc in its northernmost part of the Adriatic Sea near Trieste.[216]


Temperatures in °C
Location Latitude Longitude Coldest
Reykjavík 64 N 22 W 0.1 11.2 4.7
Umeå 64 N 20 E −6.2 16.0 3.9
Oulu 65 N 25.5 E −9.6 16.5 2.7
Arkhangelsk 64.5 N 40.5 E −12.7 16.3 1.3
Lerwick 60 N 1 W 3.5 12.4 7.4
Stockholm 59.5 N 19 E −1.7 18.4 7.4
Helsinki 60 N 25 E −4.7 17.8 5.9
Saint Petersburg 60 N 30 E −5.8 18.8 5.8
Edinburgh 55.5 N 3 W 4.2 15.3 9.3
Copenhagen 55.5 N 12 E 1.4 18.1 9.1
Klaipėda 55.5 N 21 E −1.3 17.9 8.0
Moscow 55.5 N 30 E −6.5 19.2 5.8
Isles of Scilly 50 N 6 W 7.9 16.9 11.8
Brussels 50.5 N 4 E 3.3 18.4 10.5
Krakow 50 N 20 E −2.0 19.2 8.7
Kyiv 50.5 N 30 E −3.5 20.5 8.4
Bordeaux 45 N 0 6.6 21.4 13.8
Venice 45.5 N 12 E 3.3 23.0 13.0
Belgrade 45 N 20 E 1.4 23.0 12.5
Astrakhan 46 N 48 E −3.7 25.6 10.5
Coimbra 40 N 8 W 9.9 21.9 16.0
Valencia 39.5 N 0 11.9 26.1 18.3
Naples 40.5 N 14 E 8.7 24.7 15.9
Istanbul 41 N 29 E 6.0 23.8 11.4



The Volga, as seen in Yaroslavl. It flows from Central Russia and into the Caspian Sea, and is the longest river in Europe.
The Danube, as seen in Đerdap National Park. It flows from the Black Forest and into the Black Sea, and is the second-longest river in Europe, which also passes through the largest number of countries in the world at 10.








Possibly 80 to 90 percent of Europe was once covered by forest.[221] It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Although over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of deforestation, Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such as the broadleaf and mixed forests, taiga of Scandinavia and Russia, mixed rainforests of the Caucasus and the Cork oak forests in the western Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been slowed and many trees have been planted. However, in many cases monoculture plantations of conifers have replaced the original mixed natural forest, because these grow quicker. The plantations now cover vast areas of land, but offer poorer habitats for many European forest dwelling species which require a mixture of tree species and diverse forest structure. The amount of natural forest in Western Europe is just 2–3% or less, while in its Western Russia its 5–10%. The European country with the smallest percentage of forested area is Iceland (1%), while the most forested country is Finland (77%).[222]



Biogeographic regions of Europe and bordering regions


Once roaming the great temperate forests of Eurasia, European bison now live in nature preserves in Białowieża Forest, on the border between Poland and Belarus.[223][224]











List of states and territories

The list below includes all entities[clarification needed] falling even partially under any of the various common definitions of Europe,[clarification needed] geographic or political.

Flag Arms Name Area

(per km2)
Capital Name(s) in official language(s)
Albania Albania Albania 28,748 2,876,591 98.5 Tirana Shqipëria
Andorra Andorra Andorra 468 77,281 179.8 Andorra la Vella Andorra
Armenia Armenia Armenia[j] 29,743 2,924,816 101.5 Yerevan Հայաստան (Hayastan)
Austria Austria Austria 83,858 8,823,054 104 Vienna Österreich
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Azerbaijan[k] 86,600 9,911,646 113 Baku Azǝrbaycan
Belarus Belarus Belarus 207,560 9,504,700 45.8 Minsk Беларусь (Belaruś)
Belgium Belgium Belgium 30,528 11,358,357 372.06 Brussels België/Belgique/Belgien
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina 51,129 3,531,159 68.97 Sarajevo Bosna i Hercegovina/Боснa и Херцеговина
Bulgaria Bulgaria Bulgaria 110,910 7,101,859 64.9 Sofia България (Bǎlgariya)
Croatia Croatia Croatia 56,542 4,284,889 75.8 Zagreb Hrvatska
Cyprus Cyprus Cyprus[d] 9,251 1,170,125 123.4 Nicosia Κύπρος (Kýpros)/Kıbrıs
Czech Republic Czech Republic Czech Republic 78,866 10,610,947 134 Prague Česko
Denmark Denmark Denmark 43,094 5,748,796 133.9 Copenhagen Danmark
Estonia Estonia Estonia 45,226 1,319,133 28 Tallinn Eesti
Finland Finland Finland 338,455 5,509,717 16 Helsinki Suomi/Finland
France France France[g] 547,030 67,348,000 116 Paris France
Georgia (country) Georgia (country) Georgia[l] 69,700 3,718,200 53.5 Tbilisi საქართველო (Sakartvelo)
Germany Germany Germany 357,168 82,800,000 232 Berlin Deutschland
Greece Greece Greece 131,957 10,768,477 82 Athens Ελλάδα (Elláda)
Hungary Hungary Hungary 93,030 9,797,561 105.3 Budapest Magyarország
Iceland Iceland Iceland 103,000 350,710 3.2 Reykjavík Ísland
Republic of Ireland Ireland Ireland 70,280 4,761,865 67.7 Dublin Éire/Ireland
Italy Italy Italy 301,338 60,589,445 201.3 Rome Italia
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan Kazakhstan[i] 148,000 17,987,736 6.49 Nur-Sultan Қазақстан (Qazaqstan)
Latvia Latvia Latvia 64,589 1,925,800 34.3 Riga Latvija
Liechtenstein Liechtenstein Liechtenstein 160 38,111 227 Vaduz Liechtenstein
Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania 65,300 2,800,667 45.8 Vilnius Lietuva
Luxembourg Luxembourg Luxembourg 2,586 602,005 233.7 Luxembourg Lëtzebuerg/Luxemburg/Luxembourg
Malta Malta Malta 316 445,426 1,410 Valletta Malta
Moldova Moldova Moldova[a] 33,846 3,434,547 101.5 Chișinău Moldova
Monaco Monaco Monaco 2.020 38,400 18,713 Monaco Monaco
Montenegro Montenegro Montenegro 13,812 642,550 45.0 Podgorica Crna Gora/Црна Гора
Netherlands Netherlands Netherlands[h] 41,543 17,271,990 414.9 Amsterdam Nederland
North Macedonia North Macedonia North Macedonia 25,713 2,103,721 80.1 Skopje Северна Македонија (Severna Makedonija)
Norway Norway Norway 385,203 5,295,619 15.8 Oslo Norge/Noreg/Norga
Poland Poland Poland 312,685 38,422,346 123.5 Warsaw Polska
Portugal Portugal Portugal[e] 92,212 10,379,537 115 Lisbon Portugal
Romania Romania Romania 238,397 19,638,000 84.4 Bucharest România
Russia Russia Russia[b] 3,969,100 144,526,636 8.4 Moscow Россия (Rossiya)
San Marino San Marino San Marino 61.2 33,285 520 San Marino San Marino
Serbia Serbia Serbia[f] 88,361 7,040,272 91.1 Belgrade Srbija/Србија
Slovakia Slovakia Slovakia 49,035 5,435,343 111.0 Bratislava Slovensko
Slovenia Slovenia Slovenia 20,273 2,066,880 101.8 Ljubljana Slovenija
Spain Spain Spain 505,990 46,698,151 92 Madrid España
Sweden Sweden Sweden 450,295 10,151,588 22.5 Stockholm Sverige
Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland 41,285 8,401,120 202 Bern Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera/Svizra
Turkey Emblem of Turkey.svg Turkey[m] 23,764 83,614,362[228] 106.7 Ankara Türkiye
Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine[s] 603,628 42,418,235 73.8 Kyiv Україна (Ukraina)
United Kingdom United Kingdom United Kingdom 244,820 66,040,229 270.7 London United Kingdom
Vatican City Vatican City Vatican City 0.44 1,000 2,272 Vatican City Città del Vaticano/Civitas Vaticana
Total 50 10,180,000[n] 743,000,000[n] 73


Flag Symbol Name Area
Population density
(per km2)
Abkhazia Abkhazia Abkhazia[p] 8,660 243,206 28 Sukhumi
Republic of Artsakh Nagorno-Karabakh Artsakh[q] 11,458 150,932 12 Stepanakert
Official Donetsk People's Republic coat of arms.svg Donetsk[s] 7,853 2,302,444 293 Donetsk
Kosovo Kosovo Kosovo[o] 10,908 1,920,079 159 Pristina
COA LPR oct 2014.svg Luhansk[s] 8,377 1,464,039 175 Luhansk
Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus[d] 3,355 313,626 93 Nicosia
South Ossetia South Ossetia South Ossetia[p] 3,900 53,532 13.7 Tskhinvali
Transnistria Transnistria Transnistria[a] 4,163 475,665 114 Tiraspol


Flag Symbol Name Sovereign
Population Population

(per km2)
Akrotiri and Dhekelia Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia UK 254 15,700 59.1 Episkopi Cantonment
Åland Islands Åland Åland Finland 1,580 29,489 18.36 Mariehamn
Bailiwick of Guernsey Bailiwick of Guernsey[c] UK 78 65,849 844.0 St. Peter Port
Jersey Jersey Bailiwick of Jersey[c] UK 118.2 100,080 819 Saint Helier
Faroe Islands Faroe Islands Faroe Islands Denmark 1,399 50,778 35.2 Tórshavn
Gibraltar Gibraltar Gibraltar UK 6.7 32,194 4,328 Gibraltar
Greenland Greenland Greenland Denmark [r] 2,166,086 55,877 0.028 Nuuk
Isle of Man Isle of Man Isle of Man[c] UK 572 83,314 148 Douglas
Svalbard Svalbard Norway 61,022 2,667 0.044 Longyearbyen


European and bordering nations by GDP (PPP) per capita

As a continent, the economy of Europe is currently the largest on Earth and it is the richest region as measured by assets under management with over $32.7 trillion compared to North America's $27.1 trillion in 2008.[229] In 2009 Europe remained the wealthiest region. Its $37.1 trillion in assets under management represented one-third of the world's wealth. It was one of several regions where wealth surpassed its precrisis year-end peak.[230] As with other continents, Europe has a large variation of wealth among its countries. The richer states tend to be in the West, followed by Central Europeans, while some of the Eastern Europe economies are still emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The model of the Blue Banana was designed as an economic geographic representation of the respective economic power of the regions, which was further developed into the Golden Banana or Blue Star. The trade between East and West, as well as towards Asia, which had been disrupted for a long time by the two world wars, new borders and the Cold War, increased sharply after 1989. In addition, there is new impetus from the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative across the Suez Canal towards Africa and Asia.[231]


There is huge disparity between many European countries in terms of their income. The richest in terms of nominal GDP is Monaco with its US$185,829 per capita (2018) and the poorest is Ukraine with its US$3,659 per capita (2019).[233] Monaco is the richest country in terms of GDP per capita in the world according to the World Bank report.


Rank Country GDP (nominal, Peak Year)
millions of USD
Peak Year
 European Union 19,226,235 2008
1  Germany 4,319,286 2021
2  United Kingdom 3,124,650 2021
3  France 2,938,271 2021
4  Italy 2,408,392 2008
5  Russia 2,288,428 2013
6  Spain 1,631,685 2008
7  Netherlands 1,012,598 2021
8  Turkey 957,504 2013
9   Switzerland 824,734 2021
10  Poland 642,121 2021
Rank Country GDP (PPP, Peak Year)
millions of USD
Peak Year
 European Union 22,825,236 2019
1  Germany 4,743,673 2021
2  Russia 4,328,122 2021
3  United Kingdom 3,246,537 2019
4  France 3,231,927 2021
5  Turkey 2,749,570 2021
6  Italy 2,668,956 2019
7  Spain 2,007,055 2019
8  Poland 1,363,766 2021
9  Netherlands 1,055,502 2021
10   Switzerland 660,862 2021

Economic history

Industrial growth (1760–1945)

Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism.[235] From Britain, it gradually spread throughout Europe.[236] The Industrial Revolution started in Europe, specifically the United Kingdom in the late 18th century,[237] and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise. Economies were disrupted by World War I but by the beginning of World War II they had recovered and were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. World War II, again, damaged much of Europe's industries.

Cold War (1945–1991)
Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Eurozone (blue colour)

After World War II the economy of the UK was in a state of ruin,[238] and continued to suffer relative economic decline in the following decades.[239] Italy was also in a poor economic condition but regained a high level of growth by the 1950s. West Germany recovered quickly and had doubled production from pre-war levels by the 1950s.[240] France also staged a remarkable comeback enjoying rapid growth and modernisation; later on Spain, under the leadership of Franco, also recovered, and the nation recorded huge unprecedented economic growth beginning in the 1960s in what is called the Spanish miracle.[241] The majority of Central and Eastern European states came under the control of the Soviet Union and thus were members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON).[242]


Reunification (1991–present)
One of Kosovo's main economical sources is mining, because it has large reserves of lead, zinc, silver, nickel, cobalt, copper, iron and bauxite.[244] Miners at the Trepča Mines in Mitrovica, Kosovo in 2011.




Figures released by Eurostat in 2009 confirmed that the Eurozone had gone into recession in 2008.[246] It impacted much of the region.[247] In 2010, fears of a sovereign debt crisis[248] developed concerning some countries in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal.[249] As a result, measures were taken, especially for Greece, by the leading countries of the Eurozone.[250] The EU-27 unemployment rate was 10.3% in 2012.[251] For those aged 15–24 it was 22.4%.[251]


Population growth in and around Europe in 2021[252]

In 2017, the population of Europe was estimated to be 742 million according to the 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects[2][3], which is slightly more than one-ninth of the world's population.[a] A century ago, Europe had nearly a quarter of the world's population.[253] 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.[254] Among the continents, Europe has a relatively high population density, second only to Asia. Most of Europe is in a mode of Sub-replacement fertility, which means that each new(-born) generation is being less populous than the older. The most densely populated country in Europe (and in the world) is the microstate of Monaco.

Ethnic groups

Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87 distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state, while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities.[255] According to UN population projection, Europe's population may fall to about 7% of world population by 2050, or 653 million people (medium variant, 556 to 777 million in low and high variants, respectively).[254] Within this context, significant disparities exist between regions in relation to fertility rates. The average number of children per female of child-bearing age is 1.52.[256] According to some sources,[257] this rate is higher among Muslims in Europe. The UN predicts a steady population decline in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of emigration and low birth rates.[258]



Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at 70.6 million people, the IOM's report said.[259] In 2005, the EU had an overall net gain from immigration of 1.8 million people. This accounted for almost 85% of Europe's total population growth.[260] In 2008, 696,000 persons were given citizenship of an EU27 member state, a decrease from 707,000 the previous year.[261] In 2017, approximately 825,000 persons acquired citizenship of an EU28 member state.[262] 2.4 million immigrants from non-EU countries entered the EU in 2017.[263]

Early modern emigration from Europe began with Spanish and Portuguese settlers in the 16th century,[264][265] and French and English settlers in the 17th century.[266] But numbers remained relatively small until waves of mass emigration in the 19th century, when millions of poor families left Europe.[267]



Distribution of major languages of Europe

Europe has about 225 indigenous languages,[269] mostly falling within three Indo-European language groups: the Romance languages, derived from the Latin of the Roman Empire; the Germanic languages, whose ancestor language came from southern Scandinavia; and the Slavic languages.[219] Slavic languages are mostly spoken in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. Romance languages are spoken primarily in Western and Southern Europe, as well as in Switzerland in Central Europe and Romania and Moldova in Eastern Europe. Germanic languages are spoken in Western, Northern and Central Europe as well as in Gibraltar and Malta in Southern Europe.[219] Languages in adjacent areas show significant overlaps (such as in English, for example). Other Indo-European languages outside the three main groups include the Baltic group (Latvian and Lithuanian), the Celtic group (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton[219]), Greek, Armenian, and Albanian.



Major cities and urban areas

The four largest urban areas of Europe are Istanbul, Moscow, Paris and London. All have over 10 million residents,[270] and as such have been described as megacities.[271] While Istanbul has the highest total city population, it lies partly in Asia, making Moscow the largest city entirely in Europe. The next largest cities in order of population are Saint Petersburg, Madrid, Berlin and Rome, each having over 3 million residents.[270]

When considering the commuter belts or metropolitan areas, within the EU (for which comparable data is available) Moscow covers the largest population, followed in order by Istanbul, London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Ruhr Area, Saint Petersburg, Rhein-Süd, Barcelona and Berlin.[272]


Contemporary political map of Europe showing cultural proximities

"Europe" as a cultural concept is substantially derived from the shared heritage of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire and its cultures. The boundaries of Europe were historically understood as those of Christendom (or more specifically Latin Christendom), as established or defended throughout the medieval and early modern history of Europe, especially against Islam, as in the Reconquista and the Ottoman wars in Europe.[273]

Tallinn, the medieval capital of Estonia in the Baltic States, is a mixture of Western and Eastern architectural cultures.[274][275][276]

This shared cultural heritage is combined by overlapping indigenous national cultures and folklores, roughly divided into Slavic, Latin (Romance) and Germanic, but with several components not part of either of these group (notably Greek, Basque and Celtic). Historically, special examples with overlapping cultures are Strasbourg with Latin (Romance) and Germanic or Trieste with Latin, Slavic and Germanic roots. Cultural contacts and mixtures shape a large part of the regional cultures of Europe. It is often described as "maximum cultural diversity with minimal geographical distances".



St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the largest church in the world

Historically, religion in Europe has been a major influence on European art, culture, philosophy and law. There are six patron saints of Europe venerated in Roman Catholicism, five of them so declared by Pope John Paul II between 1980 and 1999: Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein). The exception is Benedict of Nursia, who had already been declared "Patron Saint of all Europe" by Pope Paul VI in 1964.[277][circular reference]

Religion in Europe according to the Global Religious Landscape survey by the Pew Forum, 2012[8]

  Christianity (75.2%)
  No religion (18.2%)
  Islam (5.9%)
  Buddhism (0.2%)
  Hinduism (0.2%)
  Folk religion (0.1%)
  Other religions (0.1%)


Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church,[280][281] has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilisation since at least the 4th century,[282][283][284][285] and for at least a millennium and a half, Europe has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture, even though the religion was inherited from the Middle East. Christian culture was the predominant force in western civilisation, guiding the course of philosophy, art, and science.[286][287] In 2012 Europe had the world's largest Christian population.[8]


Europe has become a relatively secular continent, with an increasing number and proportion of irreligious, atheist and agnostic people, who make up about 18.2% of Europe's population,[289] currently the largest secular population in the Western world. There are a particularly high number of self-described non-religious people in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Sweden, former East Germany, and France.[290]


Football is one of the most popular sports in Europe. (San Siro stadium in Milan)

Sport in Europe tends to be highly organized with many sports having professional leagues. The origins of many of the world's most popular sports today lie in the codification of many traditional games, especially in Great Britain. However, a paradoxical feature of European sport is the remarkable extent to which local, regional and national variations continue to exist, and even in some instances to predominate.[291]

Spectator sports are popular across Europe. (Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, the largest in Europe)

See also


  1. ^ This number includes Siberia, (about 38 million people) but excludes European Turkey (about 12 million).
  1. ^ a b
  2. ^
    Russia is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The vast majority of its population (80%) lives within its European part.[292] However, only the population figure includes the entire state.
  3. ^ a b c
  4. ^ a b
    Cyprus can be considered part of Europe or Western Asia; it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. The population and area figures refer to the entire state, including the de facto independent part Northern Cyprus which is not recognised as a sovereign nation by the vast majority of sovereign nations, nor the UN.
  5. ^
  6. ^
  7. ^
  8. ^
  9. ^
  10. ^
    Armenia can be considered part of Eastern Europe or Western Asia; it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe. The population and area figures include the entire state respectively.
  11. ^
    Azerbaijan can be considered part of Europe or Western Asia.[293] However the population and area figures are for the entire state. This includes the exclave of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and the region Nagorno-Karabakh that has declared, and de facto achieved, independence. Nevertheless, it is not recognised de jure by sovereign states.
  12. ^
    Georgia can be considered part of Eastern Europe or West Asia; it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe.[294] The population and area figures include Georgian estimates for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that have declared and de facto achieved independence. International recognition, however, is limited.
  13. ^
    Turkey is physiographically considered a transcontinental country, mostly in Western Asia (the Middle East) and Southeast Europe. Turkey has a small part of its territory (3%) in Southeast Europe called Turkish Thrace.[295] However only the population figure includes the entire state.
  14. ^ a b c d
  15. ^
  16. ^ a b
    Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which can be considered part of Eastern Europe or West Asia[296] unilaterally declared their independence from Georgia on 25 August 1990 and 28 November 1991 respectively. Their status as sovereign nations is not recognised by a vast majority of sovereign nations, nor the UN. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates respectively.
  17. ^
    Nagorno-Karabakh, which can be considered part of Eastern Europe or West Asia, unilaterally declared its independence from Azerbaijan on 6 January 1992. Its status as a sovereign nation is not recognised by any sovereign nation, nor the UN. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates respectively.
  18. ^
    Greenland, an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm, is geographically a part of the continent of North America, but has been politically and culturally associated with Europe.
  19. ^ a b
    Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, internationally recognised as being a legal part of the Ukraine, although de facto control is exercised by its internationally unrecognised governments which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014.


  1. ^ "Largest Countries In Europe 2020".
  4. ^ "GDP PPP, current prices". International Monetary Fund. 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  5. ^ "GDP Nominal, current prices". International Monetary Fund. 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  6. ^ "Nominal GDP per capita". International Monetary Fund. 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Reports – Human Development Reports". Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  8. ^ a b c d e f "The Global Religious Landscape" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 January 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  9. ^ "Demographia World Urban Areas" (PDF). Demographia. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  10. ^ "Europe". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  12. ^ Lewis & Wigen 1997, p. 226
  13. ^ Kim Covert (2011). Ancient Greece: Birthplace of Democracy. Capstone. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4296-6831-6. Ancient Greece is often called the cradle of western civilization. ... Ideas from literature and science also have their roots in ancient Greece.
  14. ^ a b National Geographic, 534.
  15. ^ "The European union—a federation or a confederation?" (PDF).
  16. ^ a b M. L. West; Morris West (24 May 2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. OUP Oxford. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-19-928075-9.
  17. ^ Charles FitzRoy (26 February 2015). The Rape of Europa: The Intriguing History of Titian's Masterpiece. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-1-4081-9211-5.
  18. ^ Michael C. Astour (1967). Hellenosemitica: An Ethnic and Cultural Study in West Semitic Impact on Mycenaean Greece. Brill Archive. p. 128. GGKEY:G19ZZ3TSL38.
  19. ^ "Europe - Origin and meaning of the name Europe by Online Etymology Dictionary".
  20. ^ a b Beekes, Robert (2004). "Kadmos and Europa, and the Phoenicians" (PDF). Kadmos. 43 (1): 168–69. doi:10.1515/kadm.43.1.167. S2CID 162196643.
  21. ^ "Europe" in the Online Etymology Dictionary.
  22. ^ Michael A. Barry: "L'Europe et son mythe : à la poursuite du couchant". In: Revue des deux Mondes (November/December 1999) p. 110. ISBN 978-2-7103-0937-6.
  23. ^ M. L. West (1997). The east face of Helicon: west Asiatic elements in Greek poetry and myth. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 451. ISBN 978-0-19-815221-7..
  25. ^ The map shows one of the most commonly accepted delineations of the geographical boundaries of Europe, as used by National Geographic and Encyclopædia Britannica. Whether countries are considered in Europe or Asia can vary in sources, for example in the classification of the CIA World Factbook or that of the BBC. Certain countries in Europe, such as France, have territories lying geographically outside Europe, but which are nevertheless considered integral parts of that country.
  26. ^ a b Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopaedia 2007. Europe. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 27 December 2007.
  27. ^ Falconer, William; Falconer, Thomas. Dissertation on St. Paul's Voyage, BiblioLife (BiblioBazaar), 1872. (1817.), p. 50, ISBN 1-113-68809-2 These islands Pliny, as well as Strabo and Ptolemy, included in the African sea
  28. ^ "Europe — Noun". Princeton University. Retrieved 9 June 2008.
  29. ^ Histories 4.38. C.f. James Rennell, The geographical system of Herodotus examined and explained, Volume 1, Rivington 1830, p. 244
  30. ^ Herodotus, 4:45
  31. ^ Strabo Geography 11.1
  32. ^ Franxman, Thomas W. (1979). Genesis and the Jewish antiquities of Flavius Josephus. Pontificium Institutum Biblicum. pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-88-7653-335-8.
  33. ^ W. Theiler, Posidonios. Die Fragmente, vol. 1. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982, fragm. 47a.
  35. ^ Geographia 7.5.6 (ed. Nobbe 1845, vol. 2, p. 178) Καὶ τῇ Εὐρώπῃ δὲ συνάπτει διὰ τοῦ μεταξὺ αὐχένος τῆς τε Μαιώτιδος λίμνης καὶ τοῦ Σαρματικοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς διαβάσεως τοῦ Τανάϊδος ποταμοῦ. "And [Asia] is connected to Europe by the land-strait between Lake Maiotis and the Sarmatian Ocean where the river Tanais crosses through."
  36. ^ Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages, 1993, ""Culture and Society in the First Europe", pp185ff.
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  292. ^ Vishnevsky, Anatoly (15 August 2000). "Replacement Migration: Is it a solution for Russia?" (PDF). Expert Group Meeting on Policy Responses to Population Ageing and Population Decline /UN/POP/PRA/2000/14. United Nations Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. pp. 6, 10. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
  293. ^ The UN Statistics Department [4] places Azerbaijan in Western Asia for statistical convenience [5]: "The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories." The CIA World Factbook [6] places Azerbaijan in South Western Asia, with a small portion north of the Caucasus range in Europe. National Geographic Archived 19 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine and Encyclopædia Britannica also place Georgia in Asia.
  294. ^ Council of Europe "47 countries, one Europe". Archived from the original on 8 January 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2011., British Foreign and Commonwealth Office "Country profiles ' Europe ' Georgia". Archived from the original on 31 December 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2011., World Health Organization [7], World Tourism Organization [8], UNESCO [9], UNICEF [10] Archived 5 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, UNHCR [11], European Civil Aviation Conference "Member States". Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2011., Euronews [12], BBC [13], NATO [14], Russian Foreign Ministry [15], the World Bank "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 February 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  295. ^ FAO. "Inland fisheries of Europe". FAO. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  296. ^ The UN Statistics Department [16] places Georgia in Western Asia for statistical convenience [17]: "The assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories." The CIA World Factbook [18], National Geographic, and Encyclopædia Britannica also place Georgia in Asia.


  • National Geographic Society (2005). National Geographic Visual History of the World. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society. ISBN 0-7922-3695-5.
  • Bulliet, Richard; Crossley, Pamela; Headrick, Daniel; Hirsch, Steven; Johnson, Lyman (2011). The Earth and Its Peoples, Brief Edition. 1. Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-495-91311-5.
  • Brown, Stephen F.; Anatolios, Khaled; Palmer, Martin (2009). O'Brien, Joanne (ed.). Catholicism & Orthodox Christianity. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60413-106-2.

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