Figures for the population of Europe vary according to the particular definition of Europe's boundaries. In 2018, Europe had a total population of over 745 million people. Around 448 million of them lived in the European Union and around 110 million in European Russia; Russia is the most populous country in Europe.

Europe's population growth is low, and its median age high. Most of Europe is in a mode of sub-replacement fertility, which means that each new(-born) generation is less populous than the one before."Figure 8: Population by Total Fertility (millions)" in World Population Prospects, the 2010 Revision. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2011) Nonetheless, most West European countries still have growing populations, mainly due to immigration within Europe and from outside Europe and some due to increases in life expectancy and population momentum. Some current and past factors in European demography have included emigration, ethnic relations, economic immigration, a declining birth rate and an ageing population.

History

Prehistory Approximately 5,000–130,000 people lived in Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago.

According to Volker Heyd, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki, up to 7 million people lived in Neolithic Europe in 3000 BC.

According to archaeologist Johannes Müller, the European population was about 1 million around 6500 BC, but increased to 8 million in 2000 BC.

The following table shows estimates of historical population sizes of Europe (including Central Asia, listed under "former USSR") based on Maddison (2007),Angus Maddison, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Statistical Appendix (2007, ggdc.net). Estimates cited are for the beginning of the 1st millennium ("year 0"), the beginning of the 2nd millennium ("year 1000"), and for the beginning each century since the 16th (years 1820 and 1913 are given for the 19th and 20th century, respectively, as Maddison presents detailed estimates for these years), and a projection for the year 2030. in millions, with an estimated percentage of world population:

+ Population of Europe, in millions, by year (est.) Year Population (millions) Percentage of world total AD 1 3415% 1000 4015% 1500 7818% 1600 11220% 1700 12721% 1820 22421% 1913 498 28% 2000 742 13%

Past populations of Europe in modern national borders, AD 1–2020 +Population by year (in thousands)Country/region110001500160017001820187019131950197319982020 Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Italy Netherlands Norway Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Portugal Spain Greece 13 small countries Total Western Europe Albania Bulgaria Czechoslovakia – Czech Rep. – Slovakia Hungary Poland Romania Yugoslavia Eastern Europe Former USSR – Russia – Ukraine World

+ Percentages of world population, by yearCountry/region110001500160017001820187019131950197319982018 Austria0.20.30.50.40.40.30.40.40.30.20.1 Belgium0.10.10.30.30.30.30.40.40.30.20.2 Denmark0.10.10.10.10.10.10.10.20.20.10.1 Finland0.00.00.10.10.10.10.10.20.20.10.1 France2.22.43.43.33.63.03.02.31.71.31.0 Germany1.31.32.72.92.52.43.13.62.72.01.4 Italy3.01.92.42.42.21.92.22.11.91.41.0 Netherlands0.10.10.20.30.30.20.30.30.40.30.3 Norway0.00.10.10.10.10.10.10.10.10.10.1 Sweden0.10.10.10.10.20.20.30.30.30.20.1 Switzerland0.10.10.10.20.20.20.20.20.20.20.1 United Kingdom0.30.70.91.11.42.02.52.52.01.41.0 Portugal0.20.20.20.20.30.30.30.30.30.20.2 Spain1.91.51.61.51.51.21.31.11.10.90.7 Other0.90.40.30.30.30.30.40.40.50.40.3 Total Western Europe10.79.513.113.313.512.814.814.612.19.26.6 Eastern Europe2.12.43.13.03.13.54.14.43.52.82.0 Former USSR1.72.63.93.74.45.37.08.77.16.44.9 Total Europe14.514.520.120.021.021.625.927.722.718.413.59.8 World100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0

Note: These numbers do not include the population of European countries' colonies, only the population within Europe.

Population

330,000,000 people lived in Europe in 1916. In 1950 there were 549,000,000. The population of Europe in 2015 was estimated to be 741 million according to the United Nations, which was slightly less than 11% of the world population. The precise figure depends on the exact definition of the geographic extent of Europe. The population of the European Union (EU) was 509 million as of 2015. Non-EU countries situated in Europe in their entiretyPopulation in million: Albania 2.9, Belarus 9.5, Bosnia and Herzegovina 3.5, Iceland 0.3, Moldova 4.1, North Macedonia 2.1, Norway 5.2, Serbia and Kosovo 8.9, Switzerland 8.3, Ukraine 44.7. account for another 90 million. Five transcontinental countriesPopulation in million: Armenia 2.9, Georgia 4.0, Kazakhstan 17.8, Russia 144, Turkey 78.3. have a total of 247 million people, of which about half reside in Europe proper.

As it stands now, around 10% of the world's people live in Europe. If demographic trends keep their pace, its share may fall to around 7% in 2050, but still amounting to 716 million people in absolute numbers, according to the United Nations estimate. (The decline in the percentage is partly due to high fertility rates in Africa and South America.) The sub-replacement fertility and high life expectancy in most European states mean a declining and aging population.

Population growth

According to Eurostat, the average birth rate in the European Union was 1.5 children per woman in 2020. The EU countries with the highest rates were France (1.83 live births per woman), Romania (1.80) and Czechia (1.71). The lowest rates were found in Malta (1.13), Spain (1.19) and Italy (1.24).

The reasons that Italian citizens give for not having children are economic costs, fear of losing their jobs, and lack of services for families.

Eurostat says that the proportion of children born to foreign mothers, including both from other EU member states and from non-EU countries, has been increasing in the EU since 2013 and stood at 21% in 2020.

Age

Mirroring their mostly sub-replacement fertility and high life expectancy, European countries tend to have older populations overall. They 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

Vital statistics