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European civilization is a kind of historical „whole” connecting us Europeans with the continent we live on. The elements of the culture of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire as well as Christianity are considered the basis of our civilization. In spite of these common deep‑rooted traditions, today's Europe is diverse, and also the importance of its place in the modern world is changing.

Europe's population per capita on the background of the world's population

There are currently 742 million people in Europe, which is 10.4% of the total world population (data from 2013). The population living in 46 independent countries of this continent is ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse, and different in terms of the structure of gender and age. This is due to the various, sometimes dramatic, social and economic processes that shaped our continent in the past.
The overwhelming majority of Europe's population belongs to the white race. Small groups of the yellow race have lived near the Volga River – the Kalmyks, on the Crimea – the Tatars, and in Lapland in the North of the Scandinavian Peninsula – the Laplanders.

National and multinational states in Europe

On a relatively small continent like Europe, there are around 100 nations today. The term nation defines a community of people having a common historical and cultural past, speaking the same language and living in the same territory. If other separate national groups are distinguished in the country inhabited by one nation, they are defined as a national minority or an ethnic minority.

Historically multinational nationsmultinational nationmultinational nations in Europe are:

• Belgium, where the Flemish people live in the northern part of the country, using the Flemish language (Dutch – the official language in the Netherlands), and in the southern part there are people of Wallonia using the French (Walloon) language;

• Great Britain in which the English, the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh live; the official language is English, but minority languages have been preserved: Welsh, Scottish (Gaelic).

In some countries, apart from the local population, there is a large group of immigrant populations, and then these countries should also be considered multinational. These include: Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland.
A particular example of a multinational state is the Russian Federation: the dominant group is the Russians, but apart from them there are several separate national groups, as well as dozens of ethnic groups.

The countries in which there is only one nation are countries of high ethnic cohesion. In Europe, these include: Portugal, Greece, Poland, Norway, Albania. Ethnic groups with separate languages and cultures live in many European, one‑nation countries, but they are not very numerous.
One of the processes that took place in Europe in the last few decades is migration movement, i.e. the movement of people between countries to change their place of residence. Most countries in Europe have a positive balance of migration, which means that immigration (arrivals of population) is higher than emigration (departures of population). In 2013, the highest positive balance of migration was recorded in Germany (433,000), Great Britain (209,000), and Italy (182,000). People from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as from Africa, Asia and South America migrate to those countries.

Language groups in Europe

The population of Europe uses languages belonging to three language families: Indo‑European, Ural and Altai. The Indo‑European language family gave origin to three language groups: Romance, Germanic and Slavic having the largest range in Europe. Languages from the other two families have a smaller range. An isolated language, which is not related to others, is Basque used by a population group living in the western part of the Pyrenees. The Basques are considered to be the only indigenous non‑Indo‑European population in Europe.

European languages in the written form use three alphabets:  Greek, Latin and Cyrillic.

The following infographic provides information on the most frequently taught foreign languages in Europe.

Religious diversity of Europe’s population

An important social element that influences the lives of people to a greater or lesser extent is the status of belonging to a given religious group. In Europe, the most numerous group is Christians. Historical divisions led to the creation of large sections of this religion. Today, in certain regions or states, there are larger or smaller groups of followers of one of the sections of Christianity.

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Exercise 5

Ćwiczenie wymień stolice państw europejskich.

Ćwiczenie wymień stolice państw europejskich.

How well do you know the flags and capitals of the states? Check yourself and indicate the correct statements.

Republic of Beralus	Dublin
Republic of Austria	Athens
Portuguese Republic	Vienna
Bosnia and Hercegovina	Ljubljana
Republic of Slovenia	Sarajevo
The Netherlands	The Hague
Republic of Ireland	Minsk
Hellenic Republic	Lisboa
Kingdom of Sweden	Stockholm
Hungary	Budapest

Keywords

population, Europe, diversity

Glossary