Europe Information

Countries in Europe

General Facts about Europe

Population 729,802,252 (2000 est)

• Is decreasing by about 1%/yr.
• 12% of the world’s population.

Urbanites 74%. Europe is the world’s most urbanized continent.

People-- Europe ’s ethnic diversity and long history of conflicts ultimately molded much of the political framework of the nations of today. Major groupings of peoples:

• Slavic 31.6%. Central and Eastern Europe . Majority in 12 nations.
• Latin/Romance 29.4%. Southern and southwestern Europe and also Romania . Majority in 11 countries.
• Germanic 24.8%. Predominantly central and northwestern Europe . Majority in 15 countries.
• Finno-Ugric 2.9%. Northern Europe , Hungary and Russian Arctic . Majority in 3 countries.
• Turkic 2.3%. Central Russia ; many migrants to western Europe since the 1960s.
• Greek 1.6%. Greece , Cyprus and Central Europe .
• Celtic 1.5%. Northwestern Europe ; majority in Ireland .
• Roma (Gypsy) 0.9%. In nearly every country of Europe . Their numbers may be far higher than official figures show.
• Other European 2.1%. Including Albanians, Basques, Baltic peoples.
• Other 2.9%. Middle Eastern 12.9 mill.; Asian 3.8m; Caribbean 1.6m; African 957,000. Many are refugees or migrants mostly in southern and western Europe.

Language

• 269 Languages indigenous to Europe .

Economy

• From 1500-1940 the world’s dominant trading and industrial region.
• During the last half of the 20 th Century, the North American and then the east and southeast Asian economies forged ahead of those of Europe .
• The expansion of the EU from the 13 members in 2001 to most nations in Europe over the first decade of the 21 st Century.
• The combined impact of affluence and a rapidly falling birthrate has made Western Europe a magnet for millions from more impoverished lands of Eastern Europe , Africa and Asia .

Religion

• The last 250 years have been years of spiritual decline in Europe .
• The rise of secularism was temporarily slowed by the collapse of Communism, but as greater freedom of religious belief becomes commonplace, a practical atheism or fuzzy spirituality has become the predominant belief system among Europeans.
• The rate of decline of professing Christians is accelerating. Many of the Christians in have no meaningful involvement in church.
• Regular church-goers would probably be under 10% of Europe ’s population.
• About 24 nations in Europe have less than 1% Evangelicals, and of these, 11 have less than 0.2%.

Hotspots

• The Balkans—effects countries of Montenegro , Kosovo , Bosnia , and Macedonia .
• The Caucasus -- Russia , Turkey , and Iran
• Russian—its political future
• Northern Ireland
• The Basque region of Spain
• Chechnya in the Russian Federation

Things to Consider

• The immigration of many from other countries into Europe . As many as 30 million people have immigrated into Europe since 1945. Nearly 500,000 apply for asylum in Europe every year.
• The growth of Muslim communities through immigration and a higher birth rate is such that Islam has become the second religion of Europe . Muslims are successfully pressing for legislation which favours their religious beliefs in many countries. It is the majority religion of Bosnia , and would be of potential nations Kosovo in Yugoslavia and Tatarstan, Bashkortostan , Chechnya and Dagestan in the Russian Federation . It is the single largest religious group in Albania .
• Needy Areas
  • Western Europe —many of the countries once had great revival and were evangelized but have had little exposure to the gospel for several centuries. ( Germany , Sweden , England , Wales )
  • Southern Europe and especially southeastern Europe have few churches there.
• Keys to Reaching Europe
  • Young people—the younger generation has been lost.
  • Leaders—who can train others and start Bible colleges.

Largest Cities in Europe

Click here to download an overview of the countries of Europe (PDF format).