Throughout the Common Era, Western Europe's population development fluctuated greatly. The population was very similar at the beginning and end of the first millennium, at around 25 million people. The largest decline in this period occurred in the sixth century, due to the Plague of Justinian, which the source claims to have killed around one third of the continent's population (although recent studies dispute this). Similarly, the population fell by almost 17 million throughout the 14th century, due to the Black Death.

Improvements in agriculture and infrastructure then saw population growth increase once more from the 15th century onwards, before the onset of the demographic transition saw a population boom throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

The population of Europe was estimated to be 745 million in 2024, an increase of around 4 million when compared with 2012. Over 35 years between 1950 and 1985, the population of Europe grew by approximately 157.8 million. But 35 years after 1985 it was estimated to have only increased by around 38.7 million. Since the 1960s, population growth in Europe has fallen quite significantly and was even negative during the mid-1990s. While population growth has increased slightly since the low of -0.07 percent in 1998, the growth rate for 2020 was just 0.04 percent. Which European country has the biggest population? As of 2024, the population of Russia was estimated to be approximately 144.8 million and was by far Europe's largest country in terms of population, with Turkey being the second-largest at over 87 million. While these two countries both have territory in Europe, however, they are both only partially in Europe, with the majority of their landmasses being in Asia. In terms of countries wholly located on the European continent, Germany had the highest population at 84.5 million, and was followed by the United Kingdom and France at 69.1 million and 66.5 million respectively. Characteristics of Europe's population There are approximately 384.6 million females in Europe, compared with 359.5 million males, a difference of around 25 million. In 1950, however, the male population has grown faster than the female one, with the male population growing by 104.7 million, and the female one by 93.6 million. As of 2024, the single year of age with the highest population was 37, at 10.6 million, while in the same year there were estimated to be around 136 thousand people aged 100 or over.

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.

By creating an account, you gain access to advanced tools for leveraging this data in geomarketing applications. Perfect for OOH advertising, retail planning, and more, our platform allows you to integrate population insights with your business intelligence, enabling you to make data-driven decisions for your marketing and expansion strategies.

View yearly updates and historical trends for Western Europe Population Outlook. Source: International Monetary Fund. Track economic data with YCharts ana…

In 2024, Russia had the largest population among European countries at ***** million people. The next largest countries in terms of their population size were Turkey at **** million, Germany at **** million, the United Kingdom at **** million, and France at **** million. Europe is also home to some of the world’s smallest countries, such as the microstates of Liechtenstein and San Marino, with populations of ****** and ****** respectively. Europe’s largest economies Germany was Europe’s largest economy in 2023, with a Gross Domestic Product of around *** trillion Euros, while the UK and France are the second and third largest economies, at *** trillion and *** trillion euros respectively. Prior to the mid-2000s, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, Italy, had an economy that was of a similar sized to France and the UK, before diverging growth patterns saw the UK and France become far larger economies than Italy. Moscow and Istanbul the megacities of Europe Two cities on the eastern borders of Europe were Europe’s largest in 2023. The Turkish city of Istanbul, with a population of 15.8 million, and the Russian capital, Moscow, with a population of 12.7 million. Istanbul is arguably the world’s most famous transcontinental city with territory in both Europe and Asia and has been an important center for commerce and culture for over 2,000 years. Paris was the third largest European city with a population of ** million, with London being the fourth largest at *** million.

In 2025, the population of Europe was estimated to be approximately 7.4 million, with the most common single year of age being 38, at over 10.6 million. By contrast, there were just 126,350 people aged 99 this year.

This dataset contains the modeling results GIS data (maps) of the study “Sustainable Human Population Density in Western Europe between 560.000 and 360.000 years ago” by Rodríguez et al. (2022). The NPP data (npp.zip) was computed using an empirical formula (the Miami model) from palaeo temperature and palaeo precipitation data aggregated for each timeslice from the Oscillayers dataset (Gamisch, 2019), as defined in Rodríguez et al. (2022, in review). The Population densities file (pop_densities.zip) contains the computed minimum and maximum population densities rasters for each of the defined MIS timeslices. With the population density value Dc in logarithmic form log(Dc). The Species Distribution Model (sdm.7z) includes input data (folder /data), intermediate results (folder /work) and results and figures (folder /results). All modelling steps are included as an R project in the folder /scripts. The R project is subdivided into individual scripts for data preparation (1.x), sampling procedure (2.x), and model computation (3.x). The habitat range estimation (habitat_ranges.zip) includes the potential spatial boundaries of the hominin habitat as binary raster files with 1=presence and 0=absence. The ranges rely on a dichotomic classification of the habitat suitability with a threshold value inferred from the 5% quantile of the presence data. The habitat suitability (habitat_suitability.zip) is the result of the Species Distribution Modelling and describes the environmental suitability for hominin presence based on the sites considered in this study. The values range between 0=low and 1=high suitability. The dataset includes the mean (pred_mean) and standard deviation (pred_std) of multiple model runs.

About the Dataset:

1) Regions : - Western Europe - Eastern Europe - Northern Europe - Southern Europe

2) Birth and Death Rate: are in per 1000 People.

This line chart displays population (people) by date using the aggregation sum in Western Europe. The data is about countries per year.

This bar chart displays population (people) by countries yearly using the aggregation sum in Western Europe. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

At the beginning of the Common Era, over three quarters of Western Europe's population lived in the Mediterranean regions that make up present-day France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. At this time, all of these areas were under the control of the Roman Empire, and remained so until the fifth century. The Mediterranean region was the center of trade between Europe, Asia, and Africa throughout most of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and many of the most populous cities in the Europe were located in present-day Italy or Spain during this time. Due to this fact, these metropolitan areas were some of the most severely-hit during pandemic outbreaks. The emergence of Europe's maritime empires during the 16th and 17th centuries, and later the economic growth of Germany, led to a shift in Western Europe's population distribution; yet, over half of the population was located in these Mediterranean countries until the 19th century.

This dataset is about countries per year in Western Europe. It has 576 rows. It features 4 columns: country, male population, and urban population.

The statistic depicts the smartphone penetration per capita in Western Europe from 2011 to 2018. In Western Europe, the smartphone penetration per capita was **** percent in 2011. In 2017, the smartphone penetration per capita is projected to reach **** percent

This dataset is about countries per year in Western Europe. It has 576 rows. It features 4 columns: country, land area, and urban population.

It is estimated that the largest cities in Western Europe in 1330 were Paris and Granada. At this time, Paris was the seat of power in northern France, while Granada had become the largest multicultural city in southern Spain, controlled by the Muslim, Nasrid Kingdom during Spain's Reconquista period. The next three largest cities were Venice, Genoa and Milan, all in northern Italy, renowned as important trading cities during the middle ages. In October 1347, the first wave of the Black Death had arrived in Sicily and then began spreading throughout Europe, decimating the population.

This study includes data on regional level for nine Western European countries: election returns, occupation categories, religion, population.

The movement of human populations has greatly influenced the distributions of human commensals. Patterns of genetic variation in contemporary populations can shed light on their demographic history, including long-range migration events and changes in effective population size. The western house mouse, Mus musculus domesticus, is a human commensal and an outstanding model organism for studying a wide variety of traits and diseases. However, we have few genomic resources for wild mice and only a rudimentary understanding of the demographic history of house mice in Europe. Here, we sequenced 59 whole-genomes of mice collected from England, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey, northern France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. We combined this dataset with 24 previously published sequences from southern France, Germany, and Iran, and compared patterns of population structure and inferred demographic parameters for house mice in Western Europe to patterns seen in humans. Principal component and phylogeneti..., , , # Data from: Genetic structure and demographic history of house mice in Western Europe inferred using whole genome sequences

 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s1rn8pkgh

• ALL_Europe_unfiltered_merged_noAlloption.vcf.gz

Unfiltered vcf of 59 wild-caught house mice from England, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey, northern France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain collected and deposited as prepared specimens in the University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology, and 24 wild-caught mice from southern France, Germany, and Iran from a previous publication (Harr et al. 2016). Sequences were aligned to the mouse reference genome (GRCm38/mm10, RefSeq: GCF_000001635.20). See Tables S1 and S2 of the associated manuscript for sample information, including sample locations and alignment statistics.

Sharing/Access information

The raw fastq files used to generate this data is accessible from:

• NCBI SRA BioProject ID PRJNA1050608

• ALL_Europe_83samples_filtered_merged_autosomes.recode.vcf.gz

Filtered...

The European countries which saw the greatest population growth in 2025 were Gibraltar, Kosovo and Iceland. Overall, Europe's population declined by 3.3 percent in 2025, with this varying by region from a 0.19 percent decline in northern Europe to 4.6 percent in southern Europe. All the countries which saw the largest declines in their population in 2025 were central and eastern European countries.

This line chart displays rural population (people) by date using the aggregation sum in Western Europe. The data is about countries per year.

It is estimated that the cities of Cordova (modern-day Córdoba) and Palermo were the largest cities in Europe in 1050, and had between fifteen and twenty times the population of most other entries in this graph, Despite this the cities of Cordova (the capital city of the Umayyad caliphate, who controlled much of the Iberian peninsula from the seventh to eleventh centuries), and Palermo (another Arab-controlled capital in Southern Europe) were still the only cities in Western Europe with a population over one hundred thousand people, closely followed by Seville. It is also noteworthy to point out that the five largest cities on this list were importing trading cities, in modern day Spain or Italy, although the largest cities become more northern and western European in later lists (1200, 1330, 1500, 1650 and 1800). In 1050, todays largest Western European cities, London and Paris, had just twenty-five and twenty thousand inhabitants respectively.

The period of European history (and much of world history) between 500 and 1500 is today known as the 'Dark Ages'. Although the term 'Dark Ages' was originally applied to the lack of literature and arts, it has since been applied to the lack or scarcity of recorded information from this time. Because of these limitations, much information about this time is still being debated today.