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Europe

This article is about the continent. For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation).

Europe
Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary (with borders).svg
Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary.svg
Area10,180,000 km2 (3,930,000 sq mi)[1] (6th)[a]
Population745,173,774 (2021; 3rd)[2][3]
Population density72.9/km2 (188/sq mi) (2nd)
GDP (PPP)$33.62 trillion (2022 est; 2nd)[4]
GDP (nominal)$24.02 trillion (2022 est; 3rd)[5]
GDP per capita$34,230 (2022 est; 3rd)[c][6]
HDIIncrease 0.845[7]
Religions
DemonymEuropean
CountriesSovereign (44–50)
De facto (2–6)
DependenciesExternal (5–6)
Internal (3)
LanguagesMost common:
Time zonesUTC−1 to UTC+5
Internet TLD.eu (European Union)
Largest citiesLargest urban areas:
UN M49 code150 – Europe
001 – World
  • a. ^ Figures include only European portions of transcontinental countries.[n]
  • b. ^ European side only. Istanbul is a transcontinental city which straddles both Asia and Europe.
  • c. ^ "Europe" as defined by the International Monetary Fund.

Europe is a continent[a] comprising the westernmost peninsulas of Eurasia,[12][13] located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea and the waterways of the Turkish Straits.[14]

Europe covers about 10.18 million km2 (3.93 million sq mi), or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states, of which Russia is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 745 million (about 10% of the world population) in 2021.[2][3] The European climate is largely affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent, even at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast.

European culture is the root of Western civilisation, which traces its lineage back to ancient Greece and ancient Rome.[15][16] The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE and the related Migration Period marked the end of Europe's ancient history, and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Renaissance began in Florence and spread to the rest of the continent, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, exploration, art, and science which contributed to the beginning of the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery, lead by Spain and Portugal, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs with multiple explorations and conquests around the world. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonised at various times the Americas, almost all of Africa and Oceania, and the majority of Asia.

The Age of Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally, politically and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural and social change in Western Europe and eventually the wider world. Both world wars began and were fought to a great extent in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence.[17] During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the Revolutions of 1989, Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe are two important international organizations aiming to represent the European continent on a political level. The Council of Europe was founded in 1948 with the idea of unifying Europe[18] to achieve common goals and prevent future wars. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.[19] The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. A majority of its members have adopted a common currency, the euro, and a large bloc of countries, the Schengen Area, have abolished internal border and immigration controls.

  1. ^ "Largest Countries In Europe 2020". worldpopulationreview.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  2. ^ a b "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b "World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX). population.un.org ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  4. ^ "GDP PPP, current prices". International Monetary Fund. 2022. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  5. ^ "GDP Nominal, current prices". International Monetary Fund. 2022. Archived from the original on 25 February 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Nominal GDP per capita". International Monetary Fund. 2022. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  7. ^ "Reports – Human Development Reports". hdr.undp.org. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  8. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Survey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "Demographia World Urban Areas" (PDF). Demographia. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 May 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  10. ^ "Europe". Oxford Learner's Dictionary. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  11. ^ "Europe". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  12. ^ "Europe". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  13. ^ "Europe: Human Geography | National Geographic Society". education.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  14. ^ National Geographic Atlas of the World (7th ed.). Washington, DC: National Geographic. 1999. ISBN 978-0-7922-7528-2. "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles."
  15. ^ Lewis & Wigen 1997, p. 226
  16. ^ Covert, Kim (2011). Ancient Greece: Birthplace of Democracy. Capstone. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4296-6831-6. Archived from the original on 27 July 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022. Ancient Greece is often called the cradle of western civilization. ... Ideas from literature and science also have their roots in ancient Greece.
  17. ^ National Geographic, 534.
  18. ^ "History of the European Union 1945-59". european-union.europa.eu. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  19. ^ "The European union—a federation or a confederation?" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.


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