Europes ecological backbone.pdf

Mountain people: status and trends
Table 2.1
Population number and density in and outside mountains, and at national level, for
all European states, 2008 (cont.)
Total
population in
Massifs
% of total
population in
massifs
Population
density in
massifs
(per km 2 )
Population
density outside
massifs (per km 2 )
National
population
density
(per km 2 )
Turkey 33 394 686 46.9 55.2 216.2 91.3
Ukraine 1 065 171 2.3 49.2 77.6 76.5
Vatican 211 25.6 573.9 1 267.7 968.1
Non‐EU 51 516 537 25.2 44.5 127.6 86.8
Europe 114 580 159 16.6 47.6 134.9 103.4
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (66.6 %)
and Bosnia and Herzegovina (58.3 %) in southern
Europe and Slovenia (50.6 %) and Austria (48.4 %)
in the Alps. Turkey also has a high proportion of its
population in mountain areas — 46.9 %. At the other
end of the spectrum, the United Kingdom (2.2 %),
Ukraine (2.3 %) and Poland (5.2 %) are countries with
a mountain population of more than 1 million where
this represents a particularly low proportion of total
population. Thus, when comparing different parts
of Europe, while only 13 % of the total population of
the EU‐27 lives in mountain areas, over a third of the
population in the candidate and potential candidate
countries of south-eastern Europe live in mountain
areas — 44 % including Turkey, 38 % without Turkey.
The highest population densities in mountain
areas are found in small states, most of which also
have high proportions of their population living in
the mountains, notably Monte Carlo — the most
densely populated state in Europe — as well as San
Marino, Liechtenstein and Andorra. Except for such
small countries, mountainous parts of countries are
always less densely populated than the lowlands.
Nevertheless , the difference is not very large for
some countries with mountain populations of over
a million: Poland (122 people/km²) in mountain
areas; 123 in lowlands), Ukraine (49; 77), Bulgaria
(47; 81), and Croatia (52; 95). Of those countries with
mountain populations of over a million, Switzerland
has the highest population density in its mountains:
159 people/km²). The only other countries with large
mountain populations and mountain population
densities greater than 100 people/km² are Germany
(128) and Poland (122). The countries with the
lowest mountain population densities are all Nordic
countries: Iceland (0.4 people/km²), Finland (0.5),
Sweden (0.6) and Norway (5.2).
Many of the analyses in this report refer to
populations in the massifs presented in Map 1.3.
Table 2.2 presents the populations of each massif,
and Map 2.1 shows how the populations of these
massifs are distributed between their constituent
countries.
The massif with the largest population is Turkey.
The massif with the next largest population is
the Balkans/South-east Europe, with 22 % of its
population in Serbia and Montenegro, 18 % in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 17 % in Bulgaria, 15 %
in Greece, 10 % in Albania, and 9 % in the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The population of
the Alps is slightly smaller, with 30 % in Italy, 26 %
in Austria, and 18 % in France and in Switzerland.
Almost half of the population of the Carpathians
(45 %) is in Romania; with Slovakia (22 %),
Poland (14 %), and Ukraine (10 %). In the Iberian
mountains, 79 % of the population is in Spain,
which also includes 81 % of the population of the
Pyrenees and 78 % of the population of the Atlantic
Islands. The population of the French/Swiss middle
mountains (Map 1.3) are almost evenly divided
between Switzerland (51 %) and France (49 %).
Most of the population of the Central European
middle mountains 1 (Map 1.3) is in Germany (97 %).
In the neighbouring Central European middle
mountains 2 (Map 1.3), proportions are similar in
the Czech Republic (41 %) and Germany (38 %).
In the mountains of the British Isles, most of the
population is in the United Kingdom (90 %). Of
the population of the Nordic mountains 92 % is
in Norway. The majority of the population of the
western Mediterranean islands is in Italy (Sardinia
72 %). As shown in Figure 2.1, the density of
population varies considerably across the massifs,
being particularly high in the central European
middle mountains and Atlantic islands. Conversely,
population densities are particularly low in the
mountains of the British Isles and, especially, the
Nordic mountains — the most sparsely populated
parts of sparsely-populated countries.
36 Europe's ecological backbone: recognising the true value of our mountains