Monaco led the ranking for countries with the highest population density in 2024, with nearly 26,000 residents per square kilometer. The Special Administrative Region of Macao came in second, followed by Singapore. The world’s second smallest country Monaco is the world’s second-smallest country, with an area of about two square kilometers and a population of only around 40,000. It is a constitutional monarchy located by the Mediterranean Sea, and while Monaco is not part of the European Union, it does participate in some EU policies. The country is perhaps most famous for the Monte Carlo casino and for hosting the Monaco Grand Prix, the world's most prestigious Formula One race. The global population Globally, the population density per square kilometer is about 60 inhabitants, and Asia is the most densely populated region in the world. The global population is increasing rapidly, so population density is only expected to increase. In 1950, for example, the global population stood at about 2.54 billion people, and it reached over eight billion during 2023.

Denmark has, by far, the highest population density of the Nordic countries. This is related to the fact that it is the smallest Nordic country in terms of land area. Meanwhile, Iceland, which has the smallest population of the five countries, also has the lowest population density. As the total population increased in all five countries over the past decade, the population density also increased.

Our Population Density Grid Dataset for Western Europe offers detailed, grid-based insights into the distribution of population across cities, towns, and rural areas. Free to explore and visualize, this dataset provides an invaluable resource for businesses and researchers looking to understand demographic patterns and optimize their location-based strategies.

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As of 2025, Asia was the most densely populated region of the world, with nearly 156 inhabitants per square kilometer, whereas Oceania's population density was just over five inhabitants per square kilometer.

Population density by NUTS 3 region

Member States send to Eurostat data on population on of 31 December of the reference year under Regulation 1260/2013 on European demographic statistics. The data are conventionally published by Eurostat as population on 1 January of the following year (reference year + 1). The aim is to collect annual mandatory and voluntary demographic data from the national statistical institutes. Mandatory data are those defined by the legislation listed under ‘6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements’. The completeness of the demographic data collected on a voluntary basis depends on the availability and completeness of information provided by the national statistical institutes. For more information on mandatory/voluntary data collection, see 6.1. Institutional mandate — legal acts and other agreements. The following statistics are available. Population on 1 January by sex and by: - single age and educational attainment / marital status / broad group of citizenship / broad group of country of birth; - five-year age group and citizenship / country of birth; - citizenship and broad group of country of birth / country of birth and broad group of citizenship; - broad age group and NUTS 3 (under regional data population folder); - single age and NUTS 2 (under regional data population folder); - five-year age group and NUTS 2 / NUTS 3 (under regional data population folder). Population structure statistics: median age of population, proportion of population by various age groups, old age dependency ratio.

Ratio between the annual average population and the land area of the respective region. The land area concept (excluding inland waters, such as lakes, wide rivers, estuaries) should be used wherever available; if not available, then the total area of the region (including inland waters) is used.

Available data for gross domestic product (GDP) and population density are useful for defining divisions in socio-economic gradients across Europe, since economic power and human population pressure are recognised as two of the most critical factors causing ecosystem changes. To overcome both the limitations in data availability and in the distortions caused by using administrative regions, we decided to base the socio-economic dimension on an economic density indicator, defined as the income generated per square kilometre (EUR km-2), which can be mapped at a 1km2 spatial resolution. Economic density forms an integrative indicator that is based on two key drivers that were identified above: economic power and human population pressure. The indicator, which has been used to rank countries by their level of development, can be considered a crude measure for impacts on the environment caused by economic activity. An economic density map (EUR km-2) at 1 km2 spatial resolution was constructed by multiplying economic power (EUR person-1) with population density (person km-2). Subsequent logarithmic divisions resulted in an aggregated map of four economic density zones. Although the map has a fine spatial resolution it has to be realised that they form a spatial disaggregation of coarser census statistics. Importantly, the finer resolution discerns regional gradients in human activity that are required for many environmental studies, whilst broad gradients in economic activity is also treated consistently across Europe. GDP and population density data used were for the year 2001. The dataset consists of GeoTiff files of the economic density map and the four economic density zones.

To analyze the influence of densely populated municipalities concentrating jobs and inhabitants beyond their administrative limits, a zoning in areas of attraction of cities (AAV), vintage "2020", replaces the previous zoning in urban areas dating from 2010. An AAV consists of its pole and its catchment area, the crown. The cluster consists of one or more municipalities with densely populated areas and a high number of inhabitants and jobs. Within the pole, the commune-centre is the most populous. In addition, the koruna is made up of municipalities where at least 15% of the resident assets work within the cluster.

The population density in France is unevenly distributed. The country, which enjoys a great variety of regions and landscapes, is becoming more and more urbanized, and big cities concentrate economic activities. Ile-de-France and overseas regions: the most densely populated French regions In 2022, Ile-de-France was the French region with the highest population density. According to the source, there were ******* residents per square kilometer in Ile-de-France. In 2025, more than ***** million people lived in this region, which contains the city of Paris and its greater suburbs. The overseas regions, such as Guadeloupe, Reunion, and Martinique, are the most densely populated French regions after the Paris region. On the other hand, Corsica was the least densely populated region in metropolitan France. However, it is Guyane, the largest overseas department, which has the lowest density in France, with only *** inhabitants per square kilometre. Largely covered by the Amazon jungle, this French territory is almost entirely populated along the coasts. The overall population density in metropolitan France reached ****** inhabitants per square kilometer in 2021, compared to ****** in 2007. Ile-de-France, and particularly Paris, is the center of most of the economic, political, and social activities in France. For instance, the ten most visited national French museums and galleries in 2017 were all located in Paris. In 2014, Ile-de-France was the French region that had the highest expenditure on Research and Development (19 billion euros). Regions in France Hauts-de-France, in the northern part of the country, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in the southeastern part, were the second and the third most densely populated regions in Metropolitan France. The French southeastern coast is known for being highly urbanized, while its living conditions (sun, Mediterranean sea…) make it one of the most attractive regions to work and live in France. Hauts-de-France, which used to be one of the leading industrial regions of the country, now benefits from its geographical proximity to the heart of Europe: Brussels. Furthermore, rural regions like Centre-Val de Loire or Bourgogne Franche-Comté are less populous, and the share of the rural population in France is decreasing for years now.

In 2023, the population of the United Kingdom was around **** million, with approximately **** million women and **** million men. Since 1953, the male population of the UK has grown by around *** million, while the female population has increased by approximately *** million. Throughout this provided time period, the female population of the UK has consistently outnumbered the male population. UK population one of the largest in Europe As of 2022, the population of the United Kingdom was the largest it has ever been, and with growth expected to continue, the forecasted population of the United Kingdom is expected to reach over ** million by the 2030s. Despite the relatively small size of its territory, the UK has one of the largest populations among European countries, slightly larger than France but smaller than Russia and Germany. As of 2022, the population density of the UK was approximately *** people per square kilometer, with London by far the most densely populated area, and Scotland the most sparsely populated. Dominance of London As seen in the data regarding population density, the population of the United Kingdom is not evenly distributed across the country. Within England, London has a population of almost **** million, making it significantly bigger than the next largest cities of Birmingham and Manchester. As of 2022, Scotland's largest city, Glasgow had a population of around *** million, with the largest cities in Northern Ireland, and Wales being Belfast and Cardiff, which had populations of ******* and ******* respectively.

Mogadishu in Somalia led the ranking of cities with the highest population density in 2025, with ****** residents per square kilometer. When it comes to countries, Monaco is the most densely populated state worldwide.

Studies of modern famines tend to consider them ‘man-made’, resulting from war or from adverse shocks to food entitlements. This view has increasingly been applied to historical famines, against the earlier Malthusian orthodoxy. We use a novel dataset and temporal scan analysis to identify periods when famines were particularly frequent in Europe, from ca. 1250 to the present. Up to 1710, the main clusters of famines occurred in periods of historically high population density. This relationship disappears after 1710. We analyse in detail the famines in England, France and Italy during 1300–1850, and find strong evidence that before 1710 high population pressure on resources was by far the most frequent remote cause of famines (while the proximate cause was almost invariably meteorological). We conclude, in contrast with the currently prevailing view, that most preindustrial famines were the result of production, not distribution issues. Only after 1710 did man-made famines become prevalent.

Population density is the ratio between the population of a territory and its area. The “contemporary population density (area of variable entities)” uses in denominator the size of the entity of the tax situation on 1 January of the corresponding year from the FPS Finance (genuine source). For the years prior to 2018, the area of administrative units shall be that of the cadastral register of the corresponding year. The “population density for temporal comparisons (area of stable entities)” uses the area of the fiscal situation as at 1 January 2018 for the whole series (1992 to the most recent year).

Russia is the largest country in the world by far, with a total area of just over 17 million square kilometers. After Antarctica, the next three countries are Canada, the U.S., and China; all between 9.5 and 10 million square kilometers. The figures given include internal water surface area (such as lakes or rivers) - if the figures were for land surface only then China would be the second largest country in the world, the U.S. third, and Canada (the country with more lakes than the rest of the world combined) fourth. Russia Russia has a population of around 145 million people, putting it in the top ten most populous countries in the world, and making it the most populous in Europe. However, it's vast size gives it a very low population density, ranked among the bottom 20 countries. Most of Russia's population is concentrated in the west, with around 75 percent of the population living in the European part, while around 75 percent of Russia's territory is in Asia; the Ural Mountains are considered the continental border. Elsewhere in the world Beyond Russia, the world's largest countries all have distinctive topographies and climates setting them apart. The United States, for example, has climates ranging from tundra in Alaska to tropical forests in Florida, with various mountain ranges, deserts, plains, and forests in between. Populations in these countries are often concentrated in urban areas, and are not evenly distributed across the country. For example, around 85 percent of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the U.S. border; around 95 percent of China lives east of the Heihe–Tengchong Line that splits the country; and the majority of populations in large countries such as Australia or Brazil live near the coast.

In 2025, Moscow was the largest city in Europe with an estimated urban agglomeration of 12.74 million people. The French capital, Paris, was the second largest city in 2025 at 11.35 million, followed by the capitals of the United Kingdom and Spain, with London at 9.84 million and Madrid at 6.81 million people. Istanbul, which would otherwise be the largest city in Europe in 2025, is excluded as it is only partially in Europe, with a sizeable part of its population living in Asia. Europe’s population is almost 750 million Since 1950, the population of Europe has increased by approximately 200 million people, increasing from 550 million to 750 million in these seventy years. Before the turn of the millennium, Europe was the second-most populated continent, before it was overtaken by Africa, which saw its population increase from 228 million in 1950 to 817 million by 2000. Asia has consistently had the largest population of the world’s continents and was estimated to have a population of 4.6 billion. Europe’s largest countries Including its territory in Asia, Russia is by far the largest country in the world, with a territory of around 17 million square kilometers, almost double that of the next largest country, Canada. Within Europe, Russia also has the continent's largest population at 145 million, followed by Germany at 83 million and the United Kingdom at almost 68 million. By contrast, Europe is also home to various micro-states such as San Marino, which has a population of just 30 thousand.

Malta is an island country of the European Union consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, and considered part of Southern Europe. It lies 80 km (50 mi) south of Sicily (Italy), 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia, and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya. With a population of about 515,000 over an area of 316 km2 (122 sq mi), Malta is the world's tenth smallest country in area and fourth most densely populated sovereign country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at 0.61 km2 (0.24 sq mi). The official language are Maltese and English, also 66% of the current Maltese population being at least conversational in the Italian language.

Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab

This report was released in September 2010. However, recent demographic data is available on the datastore - you may find other datasets on the Datastore useful such as: GLA Population Projections, National Insurance Number Registrations of Overseas Nationals, Births by Birthplace of Mother, Births and Fertility Rates, Office for National Statistics (ONS) Population Estimates

FOCUSONLONDON2010:POPULATIONANDMIGRATION

London is the United Kingdom’s only city region. Its population of 7.75 million is 12.5 per cent of the UK population living on just 0.6 per cent of the land area. London’s average population density is over 4,900 persons per square kilometre, this is ten times that of the second most densely populated region.

Between 2001 and 2009 London’s population grew by over 430 thousand, more than any other region, accounting for over 16 per cent of the UK increase.

This report discusses in detail the population of London including Population Age Structure, Fertility and Mortality, Internal Migration, International Migration, Population Turnover and Churn, and Demographic Projections.

Population and Migration report is the first release of the Focus on London 2010-12 series. Reports on themes such as Income, Poverty, Labour Market, Skills, Health, and Housing are also available.

PRESENTATION:

To access an interactive presentation about population changes in London click the link to see it on Prezi.com

FACTS:

• Top five boroughs for babies born per 10,000 population in 2008-09:
• 1. Newham – 244.4
• 2. Barking and Dagenham – 209.3
• 3. Hackney – 205.7
• 4. Waltham Forest – 202.7
• 5. Greenwich – 196.2
• ...
• 32. Havering – 116.8
• 33. City of London – 47.0
• In 2009, Barnet overtook Croydon as the most populous London borough. Prior to this Croydon had been the largest since 1966
• Population per hectare of land used for Domestic building and gardens is highest in Tower Hamlets
• In 2008-09, natural change (births minus deaths) led to 78,000 more Londoners compared with only 8,000 due to migration. read more about this or click play on the chart below to reveal how regional components of populations change have altered over time.

The population density of Spain maintained a steadily at a rate of over 92 inhabitants per square kilometers in the last decade, with the latest figures revealing a density of 95 people per square kilometer in 2022. Spain’s degree of urbanization is rather high, with levels reaching over 81 percent of urbanization in the country. Andalusia, with a total number of 8.6 million inhabitants, ranked first on the list of most populous autonomous communities in Spain.

Population density: a world of contrast

Spain is far from the European Union’s average population density, which stood at approximately 111.89 people per square kilometer in 2021, that is, a difference of over 17 people per square meter below the average. Monaco, the country with the highest population density in the world, featured about 24,621 inhabitants per square kilometer, making Spain’s population density look minimal. The results in Macao were very similar, with a population density that reached over 21,000 people per square kilometer.

The re-population of a country

The population of Spain declined for many years during the economic recession, returning to a positive trend after 2015. The Spanish population is projected to increase by nearly two million by 2028 compared to 2024. Despite this expected increase, Spain has one of the lowest fertility rate in the European Union, with barely 1.29 children per woman according to the latest reports.

Political corruption in the land sector is pervasive, but difficult to document and effectively prosecute. This paper provides new evidence on political land corruption in Malta, the European Union’s smallest member state and one of the world’s most densely populated countries. It shows how the country’s highly restrictive zoning laws, along with a de jure independent regulator, have created opportunities for extensive and endemic corruption in the granting of land development permits in zones that are outside development. It provides an example of governments creating institutions as rent-collection instruments – not to correct market failures, but to create opportunities for corruption. The unique underlying dataset was collected through an automated Web-scraping program as the regulator first turned down then ignored freedom of information requests for the data.