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Demographics of Europe

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

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.United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Highlights. 2005

Religion

thumb|250px|Predominant religions in Europe

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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 found 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.) account
for about 3% to 4% of 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):
thumb|right|350px|Simplified linguistic map within the Council of Europe nations

19% German

13% French

12% English

11% Italian

9% Spanish

9% Polish

6% Romanian

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:

49% English

35% German

28% 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 second 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, 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, Cornish, and two Jewish dialects. Nearly extinct and seriously endangered languages include several Sami, Frisian, and regional Jewish dialects, 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 .