Largest Countries in Europe by Population

Europe is the world’s third most populous continent after Asia and Africa. In 2020, Europe had a population of 746 million, which is one-tenth of the world’s population. Europe’s share of the world’s population is declining.

The most densely populated is a belt from England through northern France, the Benelux countries and Germany to southern Poland and the Czech Republic. Dense settlement also has a belt from northern Italy along the Mediterranean to southern Spain. Greater population concentrations are also found around Moscow and the Donbas.

Life expectancy is generally high in Europe, with relatively small differences between countries and regions. Nevertheless, there is a marked difference – especially for men – between Western Europe and the former Eastern bloc.

Biggest Countries in Europe by Population

As the 45 independent countries in Europe, the most populous is Russia and the least populated is Holy See. The full list of countries in Europe is shown in the table below, ranked by latest total population.

Rank	Country Name	Region	Population	Percentage
1	Russia	Eastern Europe	146,793,733	17.76%
2	Germany	Western Europe	82,979,089	10.04%
3	Turkey	Southern Europe	82,003,871	9.92%
4	France	Western Europe	66,997,989	8.11%
5	United Kingdom	Northern Europe	66,040,218	7.99%
6	Italy	Southern Europe	60,375,738	7.30%
7	Spain	Southern Europe	46,733,027	5.65%
8	Ukraine	Eastern Europe	42,079,536	5.09%
9	Poland	Eastern Europe	38,412,989	4.65%
10	Romania	Eastern Europe	19,523,610	2.36%
11	Netherlands	Western Europe	17,325,689	2.10%
12	Belgium	Western Europe	11,467,351	1.39%
13	Greece	Southern Europe	10,741,154	1.30%
14	Czech Republic	Eastern Europe	10,652,801	1.29%
15	Portugal	Southern Europe	10,276,606	1.24%
16	Sweden	Northern Europe	10,263,557	1.24%
17	Hungary	Eastern Europe	9,763,989	1.18%
18	Belarus	Eastern Europe	9,465,289	1.15%
19	Austria	Western Europe	8,869,526	1.07%
20	Switzerland	Western Europe	8,542,312	1.03%
21	Serbia	Southern Europe	7,001,433	0.85%
22	Bulgaria	Eastern Europe	7,000,028	0.85%
23	Denmark	Northern Europe	5,811,402	0.70%
24	Finland	Northern Europe	5,518,741	0.67%
25	Slovakia	Eastern Europe	5,450,410	0.66%
26	Norway	Northern Europe	5,334,751	0.65%
27	Ireland	Northern Europe	4,856,989	0.59%
28	Croatia	Southern Europe	4,130,293	0.50%
29	Moldova	Eastern Europe	3,547,528	0.43%
30	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Southern Europe	3,300,989	0.40%
31	Albania	Southern Europe	2,862,416	0.35%
32	Lithuania	Northern Europe	2,791,122	0.34%
33	Slovenia	Southern Europe	2,080,897	0.25%
34	North Macedonia	Southern Europe	2,075,290	0.25%
35	Latvia	Northern Europe	1,915,089	0.23%
36	Estonia	Northern Europe	1,324,809	0.16%
37	Montenegro	Southern Europe	622,348	0.08%
38	Luxembourg	Western Europe	613,883	0.07%
39	Malta	Southern Europe	475,690	0.06%
40	Iceland	Northern Europe	358,769	0.04%
41	Andorra	Southern Europe	76,166	0.01%
42	Liechtenstein	Western Europe	38,369	0.00%
43	Monaco	Western Europe	38,289	0.00%
44	San Marino	Southern Europe	33,411	0.00%
45	Holy See	Southern Europe	788	0.00%

Territories in Europe by Population

In addition to independent countries, there are also dependent territories in Europe. See table below for a full list of all 6 European territories, with latest total population and dependencies.

Rank	Dependent Territory	Population	Territory of
1	Jersey	105,500	U.K.
2	Isle of Man	83,314	U.K.
3	Guernsey	62,063	U.K.
4	Faroe Islands	51,705	Denmark
5	Gibraltar	33,701	U.K.
6	Åland Islands	29,489	Finland

Population Change

Today’s settlement pattern largely reflects the conditions during the industrial revolution of the 19th century, as the industry grew around the northern and eastern European coal rents. Industrialization brought with it a stream of migration from the countryside to the cities. The transition to a post-industrial economy based on service, which has been going on since the last decades of the 20th century, intensified urbanization; today the typical European lives in the city. In 1950, 52 per cent of Europeans lived in cities and towns, in 2015 that figure was 74 per cent. Urbanization has come the furthest in Northern and Western Europe by 81 percent, against Eastern and Southern Europe’s 70 percent.

Europe was the first continent to undergo a demographic transition from high birth and death rates, through a phase of high population growth in the 19th century, to low birth and death rates beyond the 20th century. At the turn of the last century, Europe had a quarter of the world’s population, shrinking to a tenth today. The population is currently falling slightly, despite the occasional large immigration to Western Europe. For a number of years Eastern and Southern Europe have had very low birth rates, while fertility has remained higher in Northern Europe. All European countries currently have a total fertility rate of less than 2; in some countries in the south and east, the fertility rate is below 1.3. In order for the population to remain stable over the long term, the total fertility rate must be around 2.05.